Take a Look in the Mirror
by Halacanno
Summary: Five years is a long time. Especially when you spend it running away from your past. That's what Danny Fenton did and is still doing. However, fate catches up with him when he runs back into Sam at his college. The problem is: He isn't Danny anymore...
1. Prologue

_A/N: All right everyone, I'm glad to see that you decided to check out this story. I began to write Take a Look in the Mirror when Danny Phantom was still a relatively new series. (I.e. When it was still in the first two episodes.) Therefore, if I leave anything out please forgive me, I'm trying my best. Reviews are much appreciated and if you're going to flame, please do it tastefully. Please keep in mind that this is **only the prologue**. Thanks a lot, and as I always say, on with the fic!_

_-Prologue-_

_This was  all my fault… _

"I'm going ghost!" Danny yelled, clenching his fists, closing his eyes tightly and tilting his head back. Almost instantly he felt the feeling of his body reforming. A sudden coldness took to his skin that he knew all too well. When he reopened his eyes, what he had set out to do he accomplished, noting that he was no longer wearing his usual white shirt and jeans, but rather a black body suit with a belt wrapped around the middle as well as white gloves and boots. Grinning, he shot up from where he was and took to the air, flying at top speed towards the translucent greenish colored ghost, red eyes burning as it snarled, reaching out with a hand to snatch the half ghost boy right out of the air.

_If I had just been more careful…__ None of this would have happened. _

He dodged the first swipe, and the second, dematerializing as he flew through the ghosts stretched out arm and rematerialized in just enough time to land a hard punch to the creatures stomach.

"Sam! Get the thermos!"

Obeying Danny's command, Sam hurriedly ran away from the scene, sprinting through the Fenton's lab as she tried to swing open the door to a large gray cabinet and grab the item she needed from inside. However, they were locked tight, and she couldn't get them to budge.

"Tuck! Give me a hand! I can't move it!"

The young African American boy who had just finished locking the portals door, turned sharply on his heel and while Danny kept the ghost occupied, crossed over to where Sam was still desperately trying to wrench the cabinet open.

_This never should have happened… Never… _

 __

Placing their feet hard against the ground, both Sam and Tucker pulled as hard as they could, grunting as they proceeded to hear a stale whine come from the hinges of the thick gray doors.

"It's… Working!" Sam said through clenched teeth as they both continued to pull. Suddenly, a loud crack sounded as Tuck and Sam both spun around in time to see Danny's body flying at them, seemingly about to hit the cabinet they were working on pulling open.

"Sam, look out!" Tucker jumped up and pushed the slightly stunned Sam over just as Danny's back came in contact with the doors. However, instead of crashing into it like any one else would, his body passed right through and he disappeared. Both watched rather anxiously at the cabinet as it abruptly began to wobble and Danny burst out of it, the thermos in his hand.

"Catch!" Danny yelled and dropped the thermos down at the duo before having his legs form into a black blur once more and shooting off to the ghost.

_We were doing so well… It was so routine…_

Tucker reached up and snatched the ghost catcher right out of the air and looked over at Sam before grinning and chucking it to her. "Ladies first."

Sam grinned as well and nodded at him, already twisting the top off of the thermos. "Why thank you Tuck."

_…For all of us._

Sam ran up and pulled the lid fully off the top of the machine. "Danny, get out of the way!"

Nodding, the phantom boy evaded the ghosts grasp once more, flying up nearer to the ceiling, making sure the ghosts eyes were still on him, and not Sam or Tucker. It seemed to be working until the last second when the ghost suddenly lost interest in Danny, and focused its attention on none other than Sam.

_It should have worked… I was so sure of myself… I thought I was finally getting the whole situation under control…_

"No! Sam!"

Still fumbling with the thermos, the gothic like girl suddenly became frozen where she was standing. The ghost grinned rather darkly and kept its red eyes locked onto hers. She couldn't move.

"Danny… Help me! I can't…Move!"

_I thought **I** was finally getting **myself** under control…_

Danny cursed as he suddenly took a sharp turn and shot downwards, wrapping his arms around the girls waste and pulling her out of harms way. However, the ghost wasn't going to give up so easily. Reaching a sturdy arm back, it swung down and with all its might, catching the half phantom boy right across the back. Green eyes going wide in extreme pain, Sam watched in horror as they suddenly flickered back to their normal blue. The white color of his hair faded back into black and his black body suit suddenly formed back into his regular clothes.

_I was wrong. _

With a sickening crunch, both bodies hit the wall, hard. Sam's hit first, before Danny's suddenly was flung into hers, causing her to be smashed up against the wall. Danny's head hit the floor and he collapsed right onto Sam's lap. Frantically, when she had shaken the daze out of her eyes, she looked down at her best friend's almost lifeless figure and despite the searing pain in her body, desperately tried to rouse the unconscious boy.

"Danny! Wake up! We need you! Oh God, please wake up!"

The boys eyes suddenly cracked open and he whimpered slightly in pain, but forced himself to stand up shakily on his feet, looking back down at the Goth girl. "S-Sam… Are you a-alright?"

There was a rather loud maniacal laugh that came from behind them and Danny spun uncoordinatedly around on his feet, eyeing the ghost and clutching a badly damaged shoulder.

"Pathetic humans! And _you_! You pathetic _halfa_! I was expecting more of a challenge." The ghost raised its fist once more and caught Danny right across the cheek, sending him spiraling towards one of the huge pillars and he smashed into it. Landing in a crumpled heap, he could barley lift his head, let alone the rest of his body.

He heard Tucker call his name, and tried to respond when a low growl came from the ghost and it snarled loudly. "Shut up you pathetic human!" The ghost swung out at the boy with its deadly fist and set Tucker careening across the room. Danny never saw where he landed, but he heard the heavy crunch of glass, giving him the idea that he had crashed into his parent's beaker shelves.

_I had never been so scared…_

The dark laugh sounded once more as the greenish ghost suddenly glided across the floor and stood towering over Danny. "Ha! You couldn't even save your own _friends!_ You're useless! But, I'm going to give you the pleasure of watching me kill one of these two!"

"No…" Danny croaked as he tried to force himself to stand once more._ 'Go ghost!'_ his mind was screaming at him, but he couldn't, something just was not right, and he could not make himself become Danny Phantom.

The ghost suddenly turned away from the hurt boy and moved slowly over to Sam, before reaching out and grabbing her by the shirt collar. It was then the ghost slammed her into the wall, over and over.

"No! STOP! SAM!" Danny tried to scream, but he was useless, he failed to be able to move.

With another sickening crack, the ghost tossed Sam into the air and watched as she hit the floor, hard. The sound of snapping bones filled the air as Danny's eyes widened in panic, looking at his friend's now motionless form.

_I could have stopped this from happening… I could have caught her…_

The ghost laughed darkly once more, before suddenly, it stopped. With its red eyes wide the creatures form suddenly seemed to fade in and out, before there was the sound of a loud suction device.

The ghost screamed before suddenly, it was gone. Danny tilted his head over to the side to see Tucker standing there, thermos in his hand, having capped it tightly. His breathing was ragged and he was cut up from the glass shards. He sent a look over to Danny and shot him a weak smile. "Got him…" and then the boy collapsed; face forward, onto the ground.

_I failed though… Failed on two accounts… Both on Tuckers and on Sams…_

"No… Tuck… Not you too…" Danny suddenly found the strength to slowly crawl over to where Tucker was lying, and raising one arm he tried to gently shake the boy awake. Getting no response, he felt tears burn the back of his eyes at the site of his friend's unmoving figure.

Even worse however was when he turned his head to look at Sam. He felt a sudden wave of nausea take over him and he turned to the side and retched. Regaining control of his body, he forced himself to move over to the girl's side. Her leg was twisted backwards and her wrists were facing in the wrong direction. It appeared her shoulder was dislocated due to how limp it looked. He heard a slight sound of a liquid dripping somewhere and tilted the girls head upwards to see blood rolling off her forehead and splattering against the ground in small red puddles.

The tears that had been building up suddenly streamed out of his eyes and rolled down his cheeks, dripping off his face and splashing against the ground, mixing in with the small blood pools on the ground.

Hunched over, his shoulders started to shake. Rapidly increasing to become more and more violent before without warning, he suddenly tossed his head back and let out a loud scream, transforming back into his half phantom self before fading back to normal, and collapsing next to Sams half dead body, sobbing.

_…And it was all my fault. _

_-End Prologue-_

_To Be Continued…_


	2. A Vanishing Ghost

_A/N: Hello all out there! Welcome back! Glad to have you here reading this story! A few announcements I need to state though before you read on. First off,** this is the last chapter taking place when Danny is still fourteen.** I was considering just skipping this, but I feel that it is slightly important to give a light background to what is going to be happening. Also, this may be slightly slow… But in general I'm hoping that this will be just as enjoyable as the prologue. _

_Thank you all for sticking with me, have a wonderful day and thanks for the** awesome reviews!** On with the fic! _

_-Chapter One-_

_-A Vanishing Ghost-_

Danny couldn't sit still. Arms crossed tightly over his stomach, his skin was pale and his legs shook without control. Squirming in his seat, unable to find a comfortable position, just the slightest sound or physical contact was enough to send him into frenzy. Jazz had found that out earlier when she tried to place a hand on her brother's shoulder and the only thing Danny did was jolt away, and with scared eyes told her not to touch him. Jazz proceeded to back off and took a seat a few away from her brother in the waiting room of the hospital, occasionally shooting nervous glances his way.

The doctors had checked him over, and for the most part, he was fine. He had a badly bruised rib and back, he had almost fully fractured his shoulder and he would be out of commission for a few days' sports wise, but it was nothing compared to how his friends were. Tucker, because of the glass had nasty back lacerations and severe whiplash from hitting the wall. His right ankle was also broken, but it would all heal in due time.

Sam on the other hand, was who everyone was really worried about. As Danny had predicted, her shoulder had been dislocated, and they had a hell of a time replacing it. Sam had chosen that exact moment to regain her consciousness, and Danny had to listen to her screams as they popped it back into place. They put her under anesthesia to work on her head, ankle and arms. She had a major concussion and had broken both her wrists. She had also shattered her leg in six different places from the terrible fall and the doctors were surprised that she had not gone into a coma.

Danny continued to shake.

A door abruptly opened to his right side and a nurse came out followed by a fourteen year old boy that Danny knew all to well. "Tucker!" He said, springing up from where he was sitting and hurried over.

Tucker did his best to grin. "Hey there Danny."

Taking a quick glance over his friends body, Danny noticed that his chest underneath the bluish hospital gown was tightly bound with white bandages. The teen was leaning almost all his weight on a pair of wooden crutches, one leg suspended a few feet off the ground with a thick cast wrapped around it. Scattered amongst his exposed arms was the same white bandaging that covered his chest, a few bloodstains showing through, showing where the boy had been cut up. The guilt that Danny felt was inexpressible.

The youngest Fenton removed his gaze from his friend for a moment to shoot his sister a meaningful look, almost pleading with her to leave the room. Fortunately, Jazz got the hint and shot quickly out of her chair, stammering an excuse to go leave the room, which sounded like she was going to check to see if the hospital had notified their parents yet. Jazz after all was the one who found them in the basement.

As soon as Jazz left the room, Danny looked once more at his friend before collapsing backwards into the chair that his sister had just been occupying. "This is all my fault…" He said, hunching forward and covering his face with his hands.

"No… No Danny, this isn't your fault." Tucker said quietly, approaching the teen slowly and taking the empty seat next to him. While laying the small ER room, waiting for the doctor's approval that he could be discharged, he had a nasty thought that Danny would probably take this whole thing rather hard. Maybe even to the point where he'd blame himself for the events that had occurred. Unfortunately, he thought right.

"No Tucker… You're wrong… This is my fault… This whole thing happened because of me…"

Slightly frustrated, Tucker sighed and shook his head, looking over at Danny with slightly angry eyes. "Why is this at all your fault? What on earth could you have done to stop it?!"

He backed off quite quickly when he took a look at the teens face. Danny's blue eyes were brimming with burning tears and with his voice wavering dangerously; he managed to choke his response out. "How am I supposed to protect other people when I can't even protect my own _friends!_"

The other teen opened his mouth to respond but was interrupted before he could when the door burst open revealing Mr. Fenton with some new ghost trapping item clutched in both hands followed by Mrs. Fenton with Jazz right behind her.

"Alright, where is it? It was a ghost that did this to you kids wasn't it?!" Jack Fenton yelled, holding the machine in such a way it seemed like he would impale the first thing that came near him. Both Danny and Tucker just stood still, mouths partly agape as they stammered for a reasonable answer that might get Danny's father to calm down. Their plan backfired however when the tall man took their silence as proof.

"Ah ha! I knew it! I'll hunt that ghost down!"

"Dear… Maybe you should calm down a bit…" Maddie said, placing a hand on her husbands shoulder. "I don't think the ghost is going to show up here…"

Danny's dad snorted. "Ha! Never can be to careful now can we? Don't worry kids, we'll hunt that ghost down and make sure it pays for what it did!" There was a look of pride on the mans face as he beamed down at his son, trying to reassure him of the fact. Without knowing though, it just made Danny feel even worse.

"I'll make sure that ghost never thinks to show it's face around this family or in this town ever again!"

As soon as his father finished saying that, Danny surprised everyone when he suddenly shot out of his chair and bolted towards the door as fast as he could without stumbling too badly.

"Dan-!" Tucker tried to call after his best friend but was cut short when the door that led to outside the waiting room slammed shut with a loud bang "-ny…"

A short, stunned silence followed the teens departure before Jack let out a booming laugh and slapped his knee. "Well would you look at that? He's so eager to get that ghost I wouldn't be surprised if he captured it before we even got home!"

Tucker on the other hand, was staring at the door, an almost sick feeling coming to his stomach. He had a bad feeling about this…

_-Fenton Residence-_

The cool wind from outside blew in through the open window, causing a few stray papers on a desk to sway slightly, producing a ruffling sound as they flapped with the breeze. There were no lights on in the room at the time, only the dull glow from the moon shown in, illuminating the floorboards and stopping right before hitting the edge of a bed. A dark shadow rested upon the piece of furniture silently, arms wrapped around its legs with its head resting on its knees.

Why did this have to happen? Why? He was the least hurt out of all of them, he could have easily saved both from severe harm. But no, he was to weak. He couldn't do anything right.

Danny had been sitting there for even longer than he knew. He had run all the way from the hospital and never stopped once until he was safely shut in his room. His sides ached and his legs burned. The back of his throat was itching from the lack of water but at the moment, he just failed to really care.

It was ten minutes later that the phone suddenly rang. Lifting his head up, he had no interest in answering it, so he only stared and the device on his desk as it continued to ring, letting his eyes glass over, knowing his answering machine would pick it up in a few seconds.

"Hi, you've reached Danny Fenton, please leave your name and number along with a message and I'll get back to you as soon as possible! Thanks!" Sure enough, he heard his voice echo throughout his room. It was such a perky tone it almost made him sick… He didn't need anything like that at the moment.

A loud beep signaled the end of his voice recording, letting the other on the end of the line know it was their turn to speak. Danny waited patiently to see who it was.

_"Hey, Danny, you there?__ It's me." _

It was Tucker.

_"I just wanted to say, I'm sorry about what your dad said at the hospital. Remember, he doesn't know… But it still seemed those words really stung you…"_

"Tell me about it…" Danny muttered quietly to himself, leaning back so he rested against the headboard of his bed, tilting his head down slightly and staring at his shoes.

_"…The whole, 'capture the ghost that did this' thing... But trust me Danny, this isn't your fault."_

The teen snorted and tilted his head to the side, and closing his eyes, a bitter expression set upon his face. "Yeah, sure, whatever."

_"Even so, I know you're still beating yourself up about it anyway…" _

Danny tilted his head back over to the answering machine and slowly swung his legs over the side of his bed, pushing himself off and stood up on both feet before walking over. Pulling the chair out from under the desk and sitting upon it, he leaned his elbow against his knee and continued to listen to the message.

_"...I also know that since you're probably wondering, I got the status report on Sam…" _

The muscles in the youngest Fenton's stomach suddenly seized up and he felt a wave of nausea cross him. Tucker was right, he did want to know… At the same time… He was afraid… Afraid of what the extent of the damage might be on his best female friend… He had gotten a quick briefing with what they could see was wrong at first glance, but he had left to early to receive the full report.

_"….Good news is, she is defiantly going to live."_

Danny audibly sighed with relief as he collapsed into the chair fully sprawled out, too tired to move to a more comfortable position.

_"However… They think that she might… Well… She might… She might have some severe brain damage…"_

The teens eyes shot wide open in shock as he jolted himself upright in his chair, aggravating his damaged rib and causing him to hunch over in pain, nursing the sore spot with his palm while he shakily took a few deep breaths. "No… She can't…"

_"The concussion she has really is a bad one. They… They had to open her skull because her brain was swelling too much…" _

Tears once again stung Danny's eyes while he tried to take a deep breath but only found the nausea come back to him once more.  In a swift motion he kicked his garbage can out from under his desk and threw up.

_"…I know that's probably the last thing you wanted to hear… But Danny, I promise you, this is not your fault!"_

Danny dry heaved a few more times before dropping out of his chair suddenly, crashing to the floor on his knees. His breathing was raspy and he tried to steady it, keeping both his arms resting on either side of the wastebasket.  "Sam… Oh God Sam…"

_"I'm not blaming you, and I'm sure if Sam was awake she wouldn't blame you either. If it wasn't for you Danny, we would probably both be dead by now!"_

"No…" The teen whispered, eyes closed tightly to stop the tears that were burning the backs of his eyelids. "This is all because of me… If I wasn't this… This _freak_ then none of this would have ever happened! We'd be living normal lives… We wouldn't be up against ghosts… We'd be normal kids, with normal teenage problems to worry about…"

_"I know how stubborn you are though Danny… And something is telling me you're always going to blame yourself for this…"_

"Why shouldn't I?" Danny whispered, his chest heaving and his body shaking. Standing up slowly, he walked over to the mirror in his room and looked at himself in it. His eyes were bloodshot, and there were red rings around them from where he had been crying. His skin was paler than usual as well. He still felt sick.

_"…No matter what happens I guess."_

Backing away from the mirror and his reflection, he tripped over the electrical cord to his lamp and fell backwards, hitting his head against the side of the bed and whimpering once more. Vision blurred, he suddenly felt like a trapped animal, held in a cage, unable to escape. "I've got to get out of here…"

_"But please Danny…"_

The teen suddenly bolted from the position he was in on the floor and looked widely around him. Chest heaving, he just couldn't take it any more. All his ghost powers did was hurt people and make his life miserable. He couldn't stay here. Who knows who he could hurt next? Possibly even kill!

_"…Please just promise me one thing…"_

Ripping a piece of paper out of his notebook, he grabbed a pencil off the desk and hurriedly scribbled a note in almost illegible writing. Leaving the paper upon his desk, he raced around his room wildly, grabbing his wallet off his nightstand and a black coat out of his closet. Throwing it over his shoulders, he took one last look in the mirror and tried to calm his breathing, hands shaking uncontrollably.

_"…Please… Please don't…"_

"Never again…" He said in a quivering voice, his breathing still coming out in rapid heaves. "Tonight is the last night I'll ever use my ghost powers… After that… Never again…"

Clenching his fist tightly, he felt his entire body go numb. When he cracked his eyes back open, there was nothing left of him to be seen in the mirror. "_Never again…_" He then flew as quickly as he could at the wall, fading right through it and vanishing from the room, not even bothering to listen to the rest of Tuckers message.

_"…Don't do anything stupid."___

**_BEEP_**

****

****

****

_-End of Chapter One-****_

_-To Be Continued…-_


	3. The Lengths That People Will Go

_(Because I forgot to do this before…) **Disclaimer: I don't own Danny Phantom. If I did, do you honestly think this would only be a fan fiction?**_

_A/N: All right, welcome back, here is the long awaited **chapter two** of Take a Look in the Mirror. A few quick notes for my fellow readers and reviewers. One, I could just hug you all, I'm so happy with the response that I'm getting I really would just love to hug you, however, I get the feeling that at least two or three of you might bite me… So I'll hold off till the story is finished ()_

_Secondly, I'm leaving my dorm room soon and I've just entered exam week, so please excuse the time gap that may come between this chapter and the third. _

_And last but not least, there are a few cameos in this piece of fiction that a few people may understand… I'm not going to mention them here, but if you do know what I'm talking about, then hooray! Otherwise, don't worry about them; it's just for people who might happen to go to the same school as I do._

_With that said, on with the fic!_

_-Chapter Two-_

_-The Lengths That People Will Go-_

_Five Years Later…_

"…And that will conclude today's lecture. Please leave your reports for me on the desk before you leave the room. If you have an extension or you turned it in early, just remind me as you exit. Have a good weekend; I'll see you all back here on Monday."

The sound of seats dragging against the floor echoed in the room, muffled partly by the amount of chatter the students were making while they were dismissed from their lesson. One of the students however, seemed to be taking his time before leaving. Leaning back in his chair, he stretched his arms out while yawning drowsily before dropping them back at his sides and pushing his chair back. Standing up, he brushed off his black jeans lightly and bent down to pick up his backpack. Swinging it over his shoulder nonchalantly, he latched his thumbs in his pant pockets and proceeded down the stairs to the tiled floor.

For the most part, he was a loner. He seemed to be anti-social by nature, or at least that was the way the other people who knew him in the college thought. However, even if this wasn't true he never seemed to be bothered by it. Usually he stuck to himself in the back of the class, taking notes or back in his dorm room doing homework. It was rumored the nineteen year old had no family, since he almost never left the campus and remained for all the holidays. He was here on a full scholarship and to the other students this was rather interesting, considering the fact that his grade point average was not extraordinarily high.

Even so, any others who were in his AP genetics class would easily say he was the best in the course of over all others. This shocked most of his teachers, including the professor of the lesson, seeing as he had seen the rest of the boy's grades. Still, the college sophomore had yet to stop amazing him and the rest of the school as well.

Yep, Alex Maphton was one of a kind.

Following aimlessly after the rest of the class, he suppressed the urge to yawn again and tilted his head to look out the window. It so far had been a pretty normal day. Even the weather outside seemed to be agreeing with him, it was nothing special. But as he had learned well, things could change in a blink of an eye.

Fiddling with the lighter in his pocket, his frame was hunched over a bit, making him appear shorter than he really was. It was hard to tell whether he was slouching on purpose or just naturally had a bad posture. Still, it was obvious he was not the kind who wanted to attract attention.

Dressed in loose fitting black jeans, the cuffs at the bottom were worn down from the heels of his black boots. A tighter black v-neck tee shirt covered his lean yet well muscled frame. Over that was a rather nice white dress shirt, left unbuttoned and rested on his shoulders much like a jacket would, the sleeves rolled back three fourths the way up his arms.

Long black hair was kept in a slightly scraggily pony tail at the nape of his neck. It was about shoulder blade length and was leaning on the messy side. A few bangs had fallen out of the hair tie, framing the sides of his rather pale face and falling into his clear blue eyes. A small silver hoop was pierced through the teen's right earlobe and there was another small bar in the corner of his left eyebrow.

He was not a Goth and he wasn't trying to be punk either. It was just what he felt comfortable in. A few people chose to comment on the fact that Alex might have been known as the "pretty boy" of the school if he wasn't quite as anti-social as he tended to be. Instead, he had inherited the label of "the freak" or "the weirdo" of the college and because of that, people usually tried to stay away from him. He didn't appear to be fazed by it though, if anything it made him smile.

_'If they only knew…'_

Placing his hand on the doorknob to enter the next class he was supposed to attend to, he twisted it to the right and pushed the door open, letting it fall shut behind him. Shifting the weight of his backpack, he raised his wrist closer to his face and checked the time; he was a few minutes early. Even so, Professor McGrandal was already standing at the podium and he appeared to be talking to someone. Quirking one of his eyebrows, he simply shrugged it off along with his book bag and took his assigned seat in the middle of the staggered rows saved for the students.

Pulling out his books for English, he sighed softly to himself and leaned back in his seat, crossing his arms over his chest and closing his eyes, waiting for the course to begin. The sound of students filling the rather spacious room gradually became louder as the clock drew nearer and nearer to eleven thirty in the morning. It seemed that as soon as the second hand had hit the sixty second mark, the teacher began to speak. Class had begun.

"All right everyone, settle down."

Opening his eyes once more, he placed his chair back down on all four legs and unfolded his arms from across his body, one resting on top of his desk, the other twirling a pencil lightly around in his fingers absentmindedly.

"Good morning everyone. Before we start off class today I have a quick announcement today, we have a new student joining us. I would like you all to welcome Miss Samantha Manson."

The pencil slipped from right between Alex's fingers and landed on the floor with a small clatter.

"Please, tell us something about yourself."

A young woman dressed in a rather nice black pleated skirt and a dark purple colored tank top with black fish netting for sleeves stepped forward and stood beside the professor. There were many dark colored bracelets covering her wrists and a silver ribbon was tied around her neck. Black hair, only a few shades lighter than Alex's was pulled back into a messy bun and violet eyes shown from beneath heavily black lined eyelids. What could have been a very severe looking expression was broken by a rather shy smile pressed onto her lips covered by a tasteful purple gloss while she nodded her head lightly at the class and began to speak.

Alex on the other hand, was not focusing on her words. Eyes wide, his hands were shaking silently under the desk, his gaze tilted downwards, flashbacks ringing through his head.

_"She might have some severe brain damage…"_

_"They… They had to open her skull because her brain was swelling too much…"_

A rather strange smile crossed his face, as he slowly took a rather sharp intake of breath and whispered softly to himself, a hint of disbelief in his tone. "S-Sam… She's… Fine…"__

"…It's very nice to meet you. Why don't you take a seat next to Alex in the fifth row?"

Hearing his name being called, Alex suddenly snapped his head back up rather quickly, his eyes focusing on the teacher who was pointing directly at him. Apparently the new college sophomore had finished speaking and the teacher was instructing her to take a seat.

The one right next to his.

A sudden feeling of total dread washed over him as the female nineteen year old began to climb the steps. Watching her out of the corner of his eye, his stomach did a rather unpleasant turn.

_The dark laugh sounded once more as the greenish ghost suddenly glided across the floor and stood towering over Danny. "Ha! You couldn't even save your own friends! You're useless! But, I'm going to give you the pleasure of watching me kill one of these two!"_

As Samantha walked closer to him, his grip on the side of his English book began to tighten, almost to the point where his knuckles were white. Other hand still shaking rather violently, hidden from prying eyes under the desk, he felt his skin go pale.

_"No…" Danny croaked as he tried to force himself to stand once more. 'Go ghost!' his mind was screaming at him, but he couldn't, something just was not right, and he could not make himself become Danny Phantom._

_The ghost suddenly turned away from the hurt boy and moved slowly over to Sam, before reaching out and grabbing her by the shirt collar. It was then the ghost slammed her into the wall, over and over. _

Dropping her own backpack next to her desk, she tilted her head to the side and smiled lightly at him, however, no matter how hard he tried, he could not return it. Instead, he only nodded his head slowly, ripping his gaze away from the Goth like girl.

A wave of nausea crossed him as he felt his stomach churn unpleasantly. After all these years of running, after all these years of enduring painful flashbacks, only to be comforted by the knowledge he would never have to see any one he was close to again, she was here.

Squeezing his eyes shut, flashbacks roared through his head. Not just of the incident, but of his life, the entire thing. All the hardships, all the torments, everything he suffered through to get where he was today. For once in his life finally feeling confident he would never hurt anyone again.

"Hey… Are you ok?" He felt the warm hand on his shoulder and almost recoiled in shock, snapping out of his memories and looking wide eyed at the person to his right. She was looking at him with genuine concern. "You look awfully pale…" She whispered, furrowing her eyebrows at him.

The whole world seemed to just come to a complete stop around him as he shakily took a breath once more.

_With another sickening crack, the ghost tossed Sam into the air and watched as she hit the floor, hard. The sound of snapping bones filled the air as Danny's eyes widened in panic, looking at his friend's now motionless form. _

"I'm fine…I mean… I'm…"

_The tears that had been building up suddenly streamed out of his eyes and rolled down his cheeks, dripping off his face and splashing against the ground, mixing in with the small blood pools on the ground._

"I just… I need…"

_Hunched over, his shoulders started to shake. Rapidly increasing to become more and more violent before without warning, he suddenly tossed his head back and let out a loud scream, transforming back into his half phantom self before fading back to normal, and collapsing next to Sams half dead body, sobbing. _

"I need to get out of here…" With that, Alex sprung up from his seat and snatched his backpack off the floor and flung it over his shoulders, sprinting down the steps as the professor interrupted his lecture to watch as the teen raced across the classroom and bolted out the door, slamming it shut behind him. The class sat in silence for a few moments before the professor cleared his throat.

"Umm… Yes… Now let's see… When one is to take deeply into account the hidden meanings of Edgar Allen Poes work…"

Sam didn't focus on the teacher's speech though; she was still staring at the closed door with a sort of wonderment on her face. Looking to the left where Alex had just been sitting, she noticed that he had accidentally left his English book behind…

Slamming the door shut behind him, Alex stumbled down the hall in what appeared to be a blind panic. Almost tripping over his own feet, he took a sharp right turn and practically smashed through the door to the men's bathroom. Kicking open one of the stalls with his foot, he dropped to his knees and proceeded to empty the contents of his stomach into the toilet.

Once he was sure he had finished, he flushed the toilet and staggered out of the stall over to the sinks. Reaching a shaky hand up to turn on the water, he watched as the cold liquid poured out of the tap and into the porcelain depression. Cupping his palms under it, he splashed the cold liquid up against his face a few times before turning the tap back off. Leaning his weight against the sides of the sink, his chest heaved a few more times as he slowly tilted his gaze up to the mirror, looking at his pale reflection.

He had been running for so long. Running from his past and all those he cared about. His mother, his father, Jazz, Tucker…

"Sam…" Alex whispered softly to himself, closing his eyes once more. "Why Sam? Why did you have to come here?"

He was anti-social for a reason. The fewer people he knew the less chance for any of them to get hurt. He had hurt his friends, and he very possibly might have hurt his family if he had stayed home any longer. It was a good reason to run away, right? He didn't want to hurt anyone else more than he had to and that was the only choice he had.

…Right?

What probably scared him the most was how badly he just wanted to hug Sam. How badly he wanted to hold her tightly, sob onto her shoulder and thank god she was ok. But she couldn't know. No one could know. If they found out, they would be in danger again.

And he wasn't going to risk that.

One of the things though, that worried him more than anything was what happened back there in the classroom. He had dropped his pencil. For anyone else, that might not have been a big deal. But for him, it was huge.

It wasn't a slip of the fingers that had caused it to fall from his grip, nor had he dropped it on purpose. It was the first time that something like this had happened in the past five years of his life.

It had fazed right through his hand.

Alex suddenly ran back into one of the stalls, and once again, threw up.

The long lecture had finally ended, allowing the students to get up and leave. For Sam, it was already the end of the day class wise at one in the afternoon. Standing up from her seat, she looked back over to the abandoned English book for a bit before reaching her arm out and lightly picking it up in her hand. "Well he seemed to run out of here pretty fast…"

"Trust me, that's not the first time he's pulled a stunt like that."

Suddenly lifting her gaze up, she found herself staring into a pair of slightly agitated, green colored eyes. "Just ignore him."

Sam quirked an eyebrow and looked back down at the book before once again focusing on the girl who had addressed her a few seconds ago. "He looked pretty upset though… I mean… He just sprinted out of here…"

The girl snorted. "Yeah, well, you'll learn pretty quickly. He's a pretty damn weird guy. I wouldn't go getting mixed up with him; only thing he's really good at is genetics. He basically hates everyone."

"What?"

"Yep, an anti-social freak. He spends most of his time locked up in his dorm room and hardly ever leaves campus. According to most, he's got no family. Rumor is he killed them." The girl grinned and suddenly stuck out her hand. "By the way, I'm Jackie. Welcome to our school. I can help you out here, you know, introduce you to the _right_ people."

Sam's eyes suddenly narrowed and a rather cold expression crossed her face as she looked down at Jackie's hand. "The _right_ people?"

"Yeah, you're good material. If I can find some way to get you out of all those dark clothes, who knows? You could become popular. What do you say?"

"Thanks… But I think I can find my own way around. And given the choice between getting to know you or getting to know Alex, I think I'd rather take my chances with the anti-social freak." With that, Sam turned away, English book still clutched in her head and headed down the stairs to exit the classroom, leaving a rather dumfounded Jackie behind.

Once outside, she headed down the hall, idly glancing at the book in her hand. She knew all to well what it felt like to be considered weird or abnormal. Hell, her whole high school life had been built around it. Still, she had managed to pull though, despite the hell she went through in part of her freshman year. She would never forgive herself for that.

Deciding that she'd just keep the book and give it to Alex in class the next morning, it was then that a sudden thought struck her. Curious to see if maybe her idea would work, she flipped open the cover of the book and onto the first page, where she then proceeded to grin in triumph. There it was, written plain as day.

Alex Maphton

Dorm Hall – Hyphen Three

Room number 307

Closing the book slowly, she lightly tapped the cover with her index finger before tucking it under her arm and heading out the front door of the university. Sharp heeled boots clicking against the cement pavement, she tucked a stray bang behind her ear. Since Alex had left his book behind, it was a good reason for her to go and perhaps try to get to know the strange sophomore. Although what Jackie said _may_ have been true, Sam decided that she would find out herself. 

Rather loud music was blasting from headphones that were inserted into his ears. Stretched out over his bed, one arm was hanging off the edge while the other rested upon his CD player which was positioned near his pillow. Black hair was scattered around his face, Alex's eyes were closed as he just let the music wash over him, almost like numbing his hypersensitive emotions.

Motionless for the most part, he remained in his rather sprawled out position lying flat upon his stomach, his head tilted slightly to the right to allow him to breath. It had started to rain outside, the grayish clouds having formed rather quickly and begun to sprinkle wet drops of water from the sky. He had left his window cracked open; he had always enjoyed the sound. It was soothing.

The final few seconds of the last track on his CD finally ticked away and the machine slowly grinded itself to a halt. The rain outside suddenly became much louder as he no longer had any other sounds to distort it. Too lazy to pull the headphones out of his ears, he remained still, a sudden fatigue taking to his physique as he slowly found himself giving into sleep.

However, it was as soon as he had finally begun to drift off that a sudden knock on his door made his eyes suddenly flick open and he picked his head off his pillow rather hastily, staring at the entrance to his dorm room with a rather bewildered expression.

_'What the hell?'_

Last time he checked, anti-social freaks rarely had visitors.

_-End of Chapter Two-_

_To Be Continued…_


	4. The Pain of Remembrance

_A/N: Hello again! Welcome back. First off, I just want to say that I thank all you wonderful reviewers **so much! **I never dreamed that this story would do as well as it is doing right now and I'm incredibly delighted to see it! Ever review you guys send me is such a wonderful thing that helps me be motivated. Thank you for everything!_

_Now, just a few quick notes on the story… This chapter might be a little slow as well. It's taking me a bit longer to get into the 'action' than I thought, but still, I'm working on these chapters as hard as I can and I'm glad you love it. Please enjoy!_

_PS: Yes… A few of you have mentioned and yes, you're right… Danny/Alex does throw up a lot doesn't he? _

_-Chapter Three-_

_-The Pain of Remembrance-_

Swinging his legs over the side of his mattress, he stood up and brushed himself off lightly while heading over to the door. Hair still held in scraggily strands around his face, he unlatched the lock on his door and pulled it open, revealing the person on the other side.

Alex almost choked on his tongue, if it had been possible. "Samantha?"

"Oh wow, you remembered my name." The girl on the other side flashed him another small smile which faltered slightly as caught a good glimpse of the state that Alex was in. He appeared to be tired and pale, as though he was rather sick. "Oh I'm sorry… Were you asleep?"

The said teen let a half smile pull onto his lips. "Nah, don't worry about it."

Feeling slightly better, Sam unfolded her arms from over her chest and held out the English book in her right hand. "Here, you left this in class."

Blinking a few times, Alex extended one of his arms and picked up the object, flicking open the cover and finding his name written there along with his dorm address. Tilting his gaze back up to Sam, he gave another grin. "Heh, thanks. I was wondering where it went."

The gothic like teen just shrugged her shoulders and grinned back. For some reason, she found Alex's grin almost impossible to look at without cracking one of her own. It reminded her a lot of…

Well… A lot of Danny's…

Shoving rather painful memories out of her mind, she just nodded her head softly. "No problem. I'll see you in class."

Alex rested his back against the door frame and watched the girl slowly head down his dorm hall. She had been nice enough to return a book to basically a complete stranger. And this was even after when he had bolted out of the classroom top speed _because _of her.

Before he even knew what he was doing, he found himself speaking. "Hey… It's raining outside… Do you… Do you want to stay here for a bit? At least until the storm passes?"

_'What the hell are you doing!?' _His mind suddenly screamed loudly and he mentally kicked himself. What was he doing? He couldn't let Sam stay… _'You can't let her find out who you are!!'_

However, it was too late to retract the invitation as the girl had already stopped and turned slightly to look back at him. "Seriously?"

_'No! Say no!'_

"Yeah sure, if you want to."

_'You **IDIOT!**'___

Alex mentally told his mind to shove it.

Holding the door open for Sam, he waited until the girl had entered and with a quick flick of the wrist, closed it tightly. "Can I get you anything to drink?"

"Umm… Just some water I guess, thanks."

Alex nodded and with his thumbs latched into the belt loops of his pants, he slouched off into his kitchen, grabbing something to drink for the both of them.

Sam watched Alex's retreating back and took the time she had to look around his room. The teen appeared to be pretty neat for the most part. His bed was carefully made except for the impression on the covers that someone had been laying there only a few minutes before. There was nothing really on the floor except for his backpack which had been unceremoniously dumped next to his desk which was the only thing that appeared to be really cluttered.

Papers were strewn about it, a single lamp casting light down on top of a rather thick textbook that had been left open to some page he had been reading. The soft glow of a laptop screen flickered as its iridescent light drifted across the room. Sam bent a little closer to the screen to see what the screensaver had to say.

**_One tequila, two tequila, three tequila, floor._****__**

She grinned once she had read it. So Alex did have a sense of humor.

Standing back up, she turned around in time to see the black haired boy exit from the kitchen to appear in his bedroom. The dorms were all relatively small, offering a small space for a kitchen and another for a bed/living room type area.

"Here," Alex said, taking a seat on the edge of his bed and holding out the glass for Sam to take. Reaching out her hand, she wrapped her fingers around the cool glass and pulled it back in towards her. Seeing that her host had taken a seat, she pointed to the chair behind her that was placed in front of Alex's desk.

"You mind if I-"

"Go ahead." He said with a small, yet slightly nervous smile as he raised the glass up to his lips and took a sip of it. Resting his arms on his knees, he sat in a hunched over position, much like the one when he walked.

Pushing the chair out lightly with her foot, Sam took a seat on the padded surface and traced her finger silently around the rim of the glass. There was a moment in which neither of them spoke and the only sound was the heavy falling rain from outside. However, as surprising as it might have been, it was Alex who broke the silence.

"You know… If anyone finds out you're here… You're going to earn the same label I have."

He had expected a completely different response than the one he got from the gothic like teen. So when she only smirked at him and chuckled lightly he was at least minimally surprised.

"You mean the label of being an anti-social freak that lives up in his room, hardly speaks to anyone and since he never goes home or leaves campus he most likely murdered his parents?"

Alex only blinked.

Sam grinned once more. "I spoke to Jackie."

It was then Alex's turn to laugh lightly as he ran his hand through his thick black hair, pushing it back. "Well that would explain it. So now she's saying I murdered my family… Interesting…"

"She seemed to be a _huge_ fan of yours. What did you do to earn this wonderful friendship you have with her?" The Goth teen asked, raising the glass to her lips and taking a sip of her water.

"I rejected her in freshman year."

Samantha spat her water out. "She asked you on a date?!"

Alex only nodded and grinned. "I had no interest in her… At all… As you can see, she's bossy, overly preppy, and thinks she's the queen of the world. Now as _revenge_ she started to spread some pretty nasty rumors about me. I guess the college listened and well, took heed of it. It's a pretty small place as you can probably see, things travel fast."

Finishing off her glass of water, Sam sat it on the desk behind her, careful to avoid any of his randomly scattered papers as she turned back to face him. "I had the feeling that they weren't true. However, that was some vanishing act you did back there in class."

"I wasn't really feeling so great…" Alex murmured quietly, trailing off slightly at the end as he looked up into the girls face and grinned sheepishly.

The other teenaged sophomore simply quirked an eyebrow and proceeded to rest her chin upon her knees as she pulled them up to her chest, wrapping her arms lightly around them. "Either way, the class didn't seem too startled. Almost as if they were expecting you to do that…"

He grinned lightly once more. "Can't imagine why… Anyway, what dorm room are you in?"

"Oh! Well um… I'm not sure; I have the card written down somewhere… Hang on a second…" Reaching into her pocket, Sam pulled out a cameo style wallet and ripped the Velcro apart, opening it and began to flip through it. As she did so though, something slipped out and fluttered slowly to the floor. Since the girl didn't seem to realize this, Alex bent down to retrieve it, picking it up in his fingers, flipping it over and suddenly stopped cold.

"All right… Here it is… It says Sage 2 Long… Room number two thirty one…" Sam placed the card back in her wallet and glanced up to see Alex staring at the picture that apparently had fallen out. The male teen suddenly seemed to snap out of his daze as he extended his arm to her, holding the picture out for her to take.

"Here, sorry… You dropped this."

Taking the picture back from him, she looked at the three separate people printed on the front of it before smiling rather sadly, and went to tuck it away in her wallet when Alex spoke again.

"Is that you? The girl on the right?"

Sam looked at the picture once more and lowered her wallet in her other hand, staring at the picture for a little while longer before nodding slowly and smiling a bit still. "Yeah, that was me, five years ago."

Alex nodded lightly and leaned forward a bit more, pointing lightly to the other two figures in the picture. "Who are they?"

Sam suddenly stood up and walked over to Alex, grinning lightly and he scooted over so she could sit down on the bed next to him. Leaning back on his arms, he pushed his torso forward a bit so he could see the picture.

"The one on the far left with the dorky hat and glasses is Tucker. He went to Casper High School with me and I still see him on the weekends. Although we've got some serious differences, we're still best friends for the most part, and he totally encouraged me to come to this college."

_'Same old Tucker…' _Alex thought to himself and stopped right before he was about to ask whether he was still obsessed with meat or not. However, that would be like assigning himself for Capital Punishment for more reasons than one.

And he didn't have a death wish.

"And who's the one in the middle?" He asked rather nonchalantly, pointing to the black haired teen in the middle with his arms around the two others. It was as soon as he said it that he saw a sudden change in Samantha's mind-set. Her shoulders suddenly fell and her eyes became slightly glassy. The smile that was on her face only seconds before slowly faded as she tapped the motionless figure in the picture lightly with a black painted fingernail.

"That's Danny. Danny Fenton. He… He also went to Casper High with me. But… He never graduated…"

Alex blinked a few more times before he furrowed his eyebrows softly, looking at her with slight confusion. "Did he move or transfer schools? What?"

"He's… Gone…" Sam said softly, tracing her finger over the fourteen year olds frame.

Alex suddenly looked rather apologetic and fumbled with his words. "Oh… I'm sorry… I didn't mean to bring up anything painful… At least… At least he's in a better place right?"

He was responded with a slightly watery laugh coming from Samantha. "Oh no… He's not dead… He just ran away… And well, he never came back."  
 

"I'm… I'm sorry…" Alex said slowly, and there was a rather long moment of silence as they sat there, hardly moving, and the sound of the rain taking over once more. In the end though, it was the male sophomore who broke the silence for the second time. "I… I don't mean to bring up bad memories or anything… But… Why'd he run?"

There was a short pause before Sam spoke again, this time in a slightly more hushed voice. "Well… I ended up getting hurt… Really badly… And he was with me when it happened… I think he began to blame it on himself and a few people said some things without meaning to that probably reinforced that… At least according to what Tucker said… So then… Well… Then he ran."

"Jeez… Poor kid… Sounds like he was pretty emotionally unstable…"

Sam nodded once more. "Yeah… He landed a few unlucky blows in his life… And he was already having enough problems… I mean being half-" The gothic teen suddenly stopped, almost if catching herself from letting something slip and she promptly snapped her mouth shut. Alex blinked a few more times before she looked at him again. "Well, what I mean is, I guess this was just the last straw and he couldn't take it any more.

"I guess for all I know he could be dead… I hope not though… But I just… I had expected him to come home. All of us did. Even his parents thought he was just trying to blow off some steam. Jazz however was the only one who was pessimistic about the whole thing."

"Jazz?" Alex asked, tilting his head to the side a bit.

"Oh, sorry, Jazz was Danny's older sister. Despite how it sometimes may have seemed, she really did care about her brother, and she probably knew him better than any of us, including his mom and dad. She usually stuck up for him a lot so that's why when Danny ran off, we all wondered why she kept saying he's not coming back. Needless to say we didn't want to believe her, but I had the feeling she might have been right…

"Well, a few days past and we began to grow more and more worried. Jack, Danny's father actually sent out a search party for him after calling the police. We were so sure he'd come back or at least that the squad would find him. But nothing came up. The days turned into weeks, the weeks turned into months and the months turned into years, and we still never heard from him. And well, here I am, five years later with no clue where the in hell he is."

Alex listened to her story quietly, a rather sympathetic expression on his face as he suddenly picked up his hand and rested it on the girls shoulder, giving it a light squeeze. "Hey… Listen Sam… This-"

He was cut off suddenly by Samantha's rather shocked expression and Alex's eyebrows raised into his hairline. "What?"

"You just…You just called me Sam…"

Alex blinked. "It's your name… Isn't it?"

"Yeah… But aside for family and friends everyone just calls me Samantha… But that's beside the point… What were you saying?"

"Well… I was just saying how this isn't your fault… There was probably nothing you could have done and he just needed to get away… Though it was a pretty cowardly thing to do… Would you prefer me to call you Samantha?"

"Oh, no, Sam's fine, sorry… But what did you mean by it being a cowardly thing to do?"

"Well," Alex began slowly, almost as if very carefully choosing his words before speaking them. "Obviously he didn't have enough courage to face his problems and thought that the easiest thing he could do was run. And if you ask me, it sounds like he had a pretty damn good life, which makes him weak for not facing the fact."

A sudden rage took over Sam and Alex found her finger being rather painfully jabbed in his chest while she spoke with harsh words in a very dark tone. "Don't you _ever_ call Danny a coward again! He did more than anyone could have dreamed of doing! And he-! And he…! And… He…" The anger flaring in her eyes suddenly seemed to die down as she realized exactly what she was doing. Pulling her hands back to her sides she sat down on the edge of the bed again and stared at her shoes.

"My God… I'm… I'm so sorry Alex… I don't know what… What happened…"

It was the black haired males turn to surprise the other with a different reaction than the one she was expecting. Instead of snapping some rather harsh comment back at her, Alex only draped one arm around Sam's shoulders and gave her a soft shake. "Hey… It's ok, don't worry about it. You're obviously protective of him and with good reason. Actually, if anyone should apologize, it would be me. What I said was a little out of line, I don't know the whole story and I guess I jumped to conclusions. Forgive me."

Sam's face suddenly broke into another soft smile as she nodded her head and sighed lightly. "I guess emotions just get the best of us sometimes… Hey look! It stopped raining."

Sure enough, the rain had ended although the sky was still a murky gray. Standing up, Alex offered a hand down to the gothic teen and she took it and pulled herself up as well.

"I should probably be going, I wasted enough of your time all ready and I've still got some unpacking to do."

Alex nodded and chuckled lightly, "You didn't waste any of my time. You can stop by whenever, it's no problem."

Once at the door, Alex opened it for her and she gave him another short nod. "I'll see you in class. Later Alex!" Waving lightly, she headed down the hall to the staircase on the far right.

"Hey Sam," Alex called out behind her as she had just placed one hand on the banister.

"Yeah?"  
 

"Thanks," he said, gesturing to the English book that he was still holding onto in his right hand. Sam simply smiled.

"No problem." And she headed down the stairs, the sound of her heels hitting the stairs slowly fading until he couldn't hear them anymore.

Sliding back into his dorm room, he closed the door behind him once more and quietly pulled the lock. Heading back over to where he had just been sitting, he opened up the cabinet below his bedside table and pulled out an old photo album. Flipping through to the very back of the book, he paused and reached a hand up to brush a bit of dust off the picture.

Smiling softly, he found himself staring into the grinning face of three very different yet obviously close fourteen year olds. The picture was an identical copy to the one that had fallen out of Sam's wallet only a short while ago. Chuckling lightly to himself, he stared momentarily at the only female in the photo before tapping her frozen face twice and quietly closing the album. He then proceeded to place it back where it was before he flopped down backwards on the bed and closed his eyes, the smile still lingering on his face as he placed his arms behind his head.

It looked like he had a lot of catching up to do.

_-End of Chapter Three-_

_To Be Continued…_


	5. Homeward Bound

_A/N: ::Dodges all rotten food being thrown at her:: I'm sorry! Please forgive me for updating sooner, but I managed to land a full time job as a busgirl at a restaurant and I've been busy as hell. I was going to have a friend upload this chapter but he's an asshole and wouldn't do it. So, sorry about the wait, but here it is._

_Okay, a few people have accused me of having a limited sense of humor, so therefore, I've provided a bit of my wonderful dry humor that's I've sporadically laced through this chapter, so for all you humor fans, this one is for you._

_Last but not least, if anyone out there knows the on-line web RPG **RuneScape **and happens to have an account, look me up sometime. I'm always eager to meet new people, so go ahead and add me to your friends list. My Screen Name is **Halacanno**. Heh, what else would it be? If you don't have an account, I recommend checking it out at www.runescape.com. It's a whole 3D world, and I know a lot of you would have an awesome time with it._

_And with that said, on with the fic!_

_-Chapter Four-_

_-Homeward Bound-_

Word traveled fast about the friendship between both Alex and Sam, and just as he had predicted, she had been stamped with the same branding that he had received last year by his peers. However, much to his delight she seemed rather unfazed by it, and continued on with life normally despite people's moves to shift away from her in the auditorium or the strange looks she received in the halls. Even so, Sam admitted to him once that she couldn't handle it all alone.

"I mean really… Do I look like I have the Black Death or something? What's everyone so afraid that they're going to catch!?"

Alex just laughed and shook his head as they walked down the halls to their English classroom together, watching rather amused as people suddenly tried to skirt around them. It all suddenly seemed a lot more humorous to him than before when he didn't have someone to talk to about it. As oddly as he might have found it, he was seriously beginning to enjoy 'the Manson girls' company. It was like old times… Except… Well… It was like old times while starting over at the same moment.

Finding that they had a lot of the same classes together, they would usually sit next to one another while the rest of the class took lengths to avoid them. They ate lunch together on sunny days out by the stone wall on the grass and humored each other by ranting endlessly about different professors or students that they were not crazy about.

Alex of course much more closed up than Sam wanted him to be, and she slowly began to trick him into telling her bits and pieces about his past. His wish to not be quite that open was not a huge problem for her, as she guessed that since he really didn't appear to have any family; his past may not have been something he wished to remember. She decided to give him some time and decided that when he felt like opening up to her, he would.

There really was only one time of the day that they didn't have the same class and that was first period on Mondays, Thursdays and Fridays. She had computer science while he attended his AP Genetics course. Reminding him once more before they went to their separate classes that she thought it was suicidal that he was taking an AP college course as a sophomore, they arraigned to meet at the nearest Starbucks for coffee and waist their free period chatting.

Entering the coffee shop, she let the glass door fall shut behind her with the soft tinkling of a bell. Scanning the area for an open table, she was utterly surprised to see Alex already sitting at one, having raised his hand lightly to hail her over.

"Wow… You got here fast." Sam said, placing her book bag next to the seat before sitting down herself and pulling closer to the table. Alex simply shrugged.

"We were excused a few minutes early," he said, explaining it to her as he took a sip of his coffee. "Oh, by the way, I bought you a decaf, no sugar."

She smiled as he pushed the Styrofoam cup over to her and she took it in both hands and smiled. "Thanks." Alex replied with a nod of his head and a 'no problem' before closing the book he had been reading while waiting for her. After a few moments of silence, Sam looked up at Alex and grinned. The said boy only raised an eyebrow.

"What? What is it?"

"What are you doing for long weekend?" She asked, taking a sip of her own coffee before setting it back down on the gray colored marble table.

Alex blinked. "For… Long weekend?" In all truth, he hadn't even thought about it, nor had he really realized that it was coming up. He leaned back in his chair lightly for a moment before rolling his shoulders in a simple shrug. "Just stay here I guess… It's what I normally do… Why?"

Sam continued to grin. "Well… My parents wanted me to come home because it's my mother's birthday and they told me I could bring my boyfriend or someone. All though we're not dating, I don't have a boyfriend and I was wondering since you're just going to be stuck here if you wanted to come back with me for three days?"

A weekend at the Manson's? It didn't sound too bad. Alex opened his mouth to respond before like a bolt of lightning, reality struck.

A weekend at the**_ Manson's?!_******He couldn't go back there! That would be like committing suicide! At least… For him it was. Sure, he wouldn't mind spending the time with Sam, but being so close to Casper High and everything made him squirm. An internal battle between him and his alter-ego started up and raged war in his mind.

_'I can't accept that! I mean… I just… This isn't happening!'_

_'Oh for crying out loud… Go on… What's the worst that can happen?'_

_'I can think of a number of things thank you very much! Besides, **my parents** are great friends with hers!'_

_'**Danny's** parents are great friends with hers. You're Alex now, remember?'_

_'Oh… Yeah… I guess…'_

"I mean, it shouldn't be too boring," Sam continued lightly, sensing Alex's hesitance for one reason or another. She guessed it might have had to do with his apparent shyness. "Still, it's not like I'm going to parade you around town or anything. Just a nice, rather quiet weekend off campus."

_'Aww… Isn't that sweet? She's trying to make you feel more comfortable…'_

_'Shut up and let me think…'_

"Well… I err… I just don't… You know… I don't want to intrude or anything… I mean, it is your mother's birthday after all… Wouldn't she want you to spend time with you or something?"

_'Wow… You really are scared aren't you?'_

_'Didn't I tell you to shut up!?'_

"My mother loves company, she's awesome about it. I guess you can say we weren't on great terms before but we've come to respect each other. Granted, we're two totally different people, but we get along just fine. Besides, she's the one who told me to bring someone."

_'Ha! She's got you there…'_

_'But… But… But… NGYAH!'_

"Well… All right… Just as long as you're absolutely sure I can come along."

"Really? Awesome! I'll go call my parents and tell them you're coming. I'll stop by your dorm around five Friday night and we'll go. I gotta go get ready for class anyway… Later Alex!" And before he could say anything else, she had left the coffee shop and headed back to campus.

Alex for the most part just sat there in an almost stupor for a few moments before looking down at his coffee and sighing. _'Dear God… What have I gotten myself into?'_

_'Hehehe…'_

_'Oh what are you laughing at now?'_

_'You've got sweaty palms!'_

_'…I hate you.'_

Damn it, damn it, damn it, damn it! Where the hell was his underwear?!

Dropping down onto all fours, Alex growled quietly as he lifted up the dust ruffle of his bed to peer underneath the mattress. Sure enough, there was the pair of boxers that he had spent the last ten minutes trying to locate. Sure, he had other pairs, but they weren't clean, and these, well, these were relatively.

Extending his arm, in an almost evil claw like motion he began to grope around on the carpeted floor to reach his newly found garment of clothing. Feeling his fingers come in contact with a piece of fabric, he grinned triumphantly and pulled them out. Standing back up on his feet, he brushed himself off and proudly held his boxers clenched tightly in his right fist.

A sudden knock on the door grabbed his attention and he headed over to it. Reaching for the knob, he suddenly he was still clinging to his underwear. Chucking it to the side, he made sure it landed safely inside his suitcase before opening the door. Sam stood there, rather nice black top and dark blue jeans covering her body while a bondage style belt wrapped around her hips three times. She was holding a gray hooded sweatshirt over her shoulder by her left fingertips. Smiling, she nodded to him. "Hey, ready to go?"

Alex nodded lightly as well. "Yeah, I'm all packed, sorry to make you walk up here… By the way, you look nice."

If he hadn't known Sam before, he would have guessed his comment really hadn't affected her, but he knew her well enough to know that when she began to rock back and forth on her heels, she was embarrassed, flustered, or nervous – And she was doing that exact movement right now.

"Thanks. So do you," she added, gesturing to his outfit with her hand. He was wearing baggy black cargo pants and a pair of combat boots. A white v-neck with black trimming fitted his chest nicely with the schools name, "St. Marcus" written across the front.

"Err… Um… Thanks." He said, rubbing the back of his head lightly before dropping his arm back at his side.

They stayed and chatted for a bit more, before Alex walked over to the bed and zipped his duffle bag shut. Swinging it over his shoulder, he grinned and bowed to her in an almost joking manner. "Lead the way."

Heading down the stairs, Alex soon found himself standing outside the entrance to the dorms where Sam's car was parked. The sky was sunny, almost no clouds to speak of except for the occasional wisps that seemed to float across quickly.

Sam walked over to the back of the car and after producing a pair of keys from her pocket, popped the truck for Alex so he could drop his bag off in there. After finishing that little task, he walked back over and took to the passenger's side of the car while Sam placed herself into the driver's seat and started the car up.  

It was nothing fancy, but it wasn't bad either. The old Ford was a stick shift, painted a rather dark purple color. The interior was made of a grayish colored fabric that Alex couldn't place, but it didn't matter to him. Leaning back against the headrest, Sam pulled out of the dorm parking lot and shot down the highway.

The pine scented car freshener dangling from the rearview mirror amused him. It was smiling.

"Are you hungry at all? Because we can stop at a fast food place if you need to eat." Sam asked, reaching over to fiddle with the radio, trying to find a good station that wasn't filled with static.

Alex shook his head, leaning back once more and casting a sideways glance at her. "Nah, I'm fine. I ate before we left. Still, if you want to stop by all means go right ah- I love this song!"

Samantha blinked a few times as she removed her hand from the seek button. The tune that filled up the car was that by Adema, titled _The Way You Like It_. The first few bars of the chorus struck up and filled the small area with loud, angry voices and instruments tuned for hard rock.

**_"Sometimes I only remember,_**

**_The days when I was young._****__**

**_Now days, no one remembers_**

**_When they were young and stupid-_**

****

****

"'-_The way you like it.'"_Alex recited from memory, singing lightly along with the song, only vaguely off key. Sam rolled her eyes good naturally and laughed lightly. "Don't quit your day job Alex."

The said boy only chuckled, "oh don't worry. I'm not planning on it."

Eventually, the song ended and a new one came on. Folding his arms lightly over his abdomen, he tilted his head to the right to stare out the window. A few stray cows were grazing in captive fields, held back by a barbed wire fence. The country side was pretty dull for the mot part now that they had left the more popular town that St. Marcus College was placed in.

Closing his eyes, he had only meant to rest for a moment but soon found himself giving into sleep. He barley registered the sound of the music that seemed to be slowly fading and the far away ring that sounded like it might have been Sam's cell phone…

_He could barley breathe. His lungs felt constricted and full of fluid that he desperately was trying to cough up. The freezing rain pounded even harder that before on his head, weighing him down drastically. He had dumped his coat against the side of the road a long time before, seeing as it had been soaked through. _

_Teeth chattering wildly, his lips were blue and his face pale. Black hair was matted with water and dirt as he stumbled to walk forward once more. _

_A flicker of lightning illuminated the sky as he got a better sight of the world around him for a brief moment, and then it was back to blackness. A steady rumble of thunder echoed throughout the night as he tried to collect his bearings. The road in front and behind him was deserted. He had not seen a car since he had left the city. It appeared to be a very unpopulated area on top of that; he hadn't seen any houses either._

_Stumbling forward, he suddenly felt a searing pain shoot through his left arm. Hissing through his teeth, he dropped to his knees and put his hand over the place where it felt like white hot wires had just been pressed against his skin. He felt a rather warm liquid flow down it, but he couldn't tell what it was with the rain. _

_Removing his fingers, he could barley see the outline of his arm as he squinted through the rain, trying to see the damage. Raising his hand to his lips, he licked one of his fingers and instantly a coppery tasting substance hit his tongue._

_Blood._

_Forcing himself to his feet again, he clamped his hand over his already badly damaged arm. Cutting it up had not made it any better either. Another bolt of lightning flickered again through the sky and he looked to see what he had cut his arm on. _

_A rusty barbed wire fence glared back at him darkly, each of its small spikes as sharp as they were the day they had been created. A piece of his muddy white shirt had been ripped off in the process and hung there limply, blowing in the cold breeze._

_Walking forward once more, he suddenly felt his legs give way for the second time that night as he dropped down onto the ground. He only barley managed to catch himself by shoving his good arm out and landing on his knees. Another deathly coughing fit took over as he spat up clear liquid all over the ground. It was then he tried to inhale, but to his horror found it impossible._

_He couldn't breathe._

_Clawing at his throat, he forced himself to cough, desperately trying to re-open his windpipe. Nothing was working. Slowly he began to feel the effect of not getting any oxygen. Dizzy, he shook his head once more and with a disgusting gurgling sound, was able to cough up enough of the fluid to clear out his throat._

_Taking a huge gasp of air, he panted heavily as the sky growled at him once more very loudly, the rain never letting up. Crawling forward on his hands and knees, the cold mud froze his fingers and soaked through his already saturated jeans. When he could go no further, he suddenly collapsed in the rain. _

_With a grim smile on his face, the fourteen year old suddenly realized what was happening. _

_He was going to die._

_It was then that he burst into laughter. Hysterics overtook him as he lay there on the ground, his body shaking violently with every jolt the laughter caused him to make. Tears then rolled out of his eyes, burning his freezing face as he continued his out of control fit._

_He was going to die!_

_Absolutely hysterical by this point, he flipped onto his back and gazed up at the sky, convulsing on the ground below as he seemed to swim in the muddy banks. He felt so warm all of the sudden, like someone had just wrapped a thick blanket around his shoulders. Still chuckling every now and then, he closed his eyes, the rain forgotten as he felt blackness begin to take over. He thought he vaguely heard someone call out to him, but it was too late… He was going to die… _

_"Kid… Hey kid! Answer me!"_

_"Kid!"___

_"Kid—Alex…?"_

_"Alex?"_

"Alex!"

Eyes shooting open, he suddenly found the world around him refocus as he blinked a few times to steady himself. He was still in the car with Sam. Leaning back, he pushed his black bangs out of his face, suddenly realizing he was sweating like mad.

"Hey… Glad you're awake. Sorry about that, but you were freaking out… I got a bit scared."

Tilting his gaze over to the teenaged girl, he watched her for a moment, regaining his bearings for the second time then relaxing. "Oh… Yeah, sorry about that… Just a bad dream."

Sam nodded once more and smiled, feeling slightly better. However, Alex was still white as a sheet, and it took another five minutes or so for all the color to return to his skin. Shaking his head from side to side, he suddenly looked up to face Sam once more, rubbing his temples with his fingers. "How long have I been out?"

"Oh… About three hours I'd say."

"Three hours? That long?" Alex asked, a rather surprised look on his face as he dropped his hands back in his lap. Sam chuckled lightly.

"Yeah actually, we're almost there. See? That's my old high school right outside the window."

Tilting his head to the right almost in a rush, he felt his throat constrict as he stared at the walls of a rather nice high school. Kids were littering the sidewalk, none of which Alex recognized, heading home for the weekend.

He swallowed a rather painful lump that had been building up. Casper High was just not a place he had been expecting to see any time soon.

"I just thought I'd let you know, since you were asleep I didn't get to tell you before, but there has been a slight change of plans…" Sam said casually, flicking a stray bang out of her face as she pushed herself up lightly to reach into her pants pocket, pulling out a pack of gum. "My mother told us to meet at a friend's house instead of heading directly home; apparently they're finishing up renovations… I hope that's all right."

Alex smiled and shook his head, accepting the Colgate gum that Sam was holding out for him to take. "No, it's no problem. Where will we be staying?"

"Actually, we're here." She said, pulling into a driveway and turning the car off. Tilting his gaze up, he literally choked on the gum he had just started chewing. For directly in front of him was the one place he had silently prayed never to see again. It was a small house, located right on the corner of a rather calm intersection decked with a fairly strange laboratory type structure on the top.

Complete with Jack and Maddie Fenton waving merrily from the front door.

_-End of Chapter Four-_

_To Be Continued…_


	6. No Place to Hide

_A/N: Welcome back, if you're reading this for the first time then good for you! If you've been following my story and are here reading this chapter, even better! Anyway, once again, welcome back to the sixth chapter of Take a Look in the Mirror. Sorry for the slow upload, but computers in short suck so I wasn't able to post it any sooner… But moving on from that, I just have a few notes about the story because a few people have either mentioned/asked about them…_

**_One: _**_No, Danny/Alex is not gay. I know he has an earring, but just because does not make him homosexual. I'm sorry yaoi fans, but this isn't one. I have no problem with homosexuality, but to put it shortly, he's not in this piece. To be honest, I'm not sure if this is even an honest Danny/Sam fic. Yes, there is a bit of hinting, but in general… Well, you get the point._

**_Two: _**_I tired to keep Danny's parents as close to IC as humanly possible. But trust me… They're hard to write!_

**_Three: _**_For all people who are anxiously awaiting Jazz's appearance or Tucker's big moment… This chapter's for you._

_-Chapter Five-_

_-__No Place__ to Hide-_

_'Oh shit… Dear God… Please let this be a dream… Please let me wake up right now… This can't be happening!'_

However, despite Alex's desperate attempts to convince himself this was all a very bad dream, it proved pointless in the end when he grabbed his right arm and dug his nails into it. "Ouch!"

Sam looked over with a half amused, half worried expression on her face. "What on earth are you doing?"

"'s nothing… Really… Never mind…" He muttered, shaking his head and rubbing his skin that his nails had just bit into. Looking down he could see the small, crescent moon shaped red markings on his forearm, which was when he realized that no, it was not a dream.

It was a nightmare.

It was a very real one though, one that he would not be getting out of for a long time, at least not until Monday. Trying to swallow, he felt that his mouth had suddenly gone very dry, and he could not. He probably would not have moved either if Sam didn't have the courtesy to break him out of his thoughts.

"Come on, I'll introduce you!"

Her voice sounded excited, as though she could not wait until he got to meet some of the family friends once again. The thought of it though just made him feel sick.

Nodding slowly, he watched as if he was without control over his own body as his hand reached for the car door. Pulling the release, it swung open and he stepped out, almost instantly being greeted by a warm, friendly breeze. He grimaced.

Sam had already slammed the door to the drivers side, made a quick motion with her hand for him to follow her and ran up to the front stairs. "Mr. and Mrs. Fenton!"

"Oh hello, Samantha!" Maddie said with a smile, embracing the nineteen year old with a tight hug. "You look wonderful, and it's so sweet of you to take the weekend off to come home for your mother's birthday!"

"Of course!" Sam said rather happily, "I wouldn't miss it."

"And who's this young man?" Jack added, looking over his wife's head, addressing the male teen that was standing behind Sam with a rather glazed look in his eyes.

Alex, snapping himself out of a daydream for the second time that day, took a few steps forward, deciding he'd rather let Sam introduce him.

"Oh, I'm sorry… I would like both of you to meet Alex; he's a friend from college."

Jack stood on the doorstep before suddenly running forward and standing directly in front of Alex, scrutinizing him intently, paying close to every detail of his features while the said teen just stood there, looking both confused and anxious. It was then that Jack suddenly broke out into a smile and clapped a hand on Alex's shoulder. "Well, you look human enough to me. I'm Jack Fenton, pleased to meet you," and he stuck out his right hand.

"Alex… Alex Maphton." He said, sticking his hand out as well and giving the rather tall man a good shake. Alex wasn't sure if anyone had picked up the slightly nervous twinge in his voice, but no one seemed to, and he relaxed a bit.

"Well it's wonderful to meet you Alex." Maddie said, nodding her head and smiling at him. "Any friend of Sam's is a friend of ours! Come on in; let's go inside, you can meet everyone else."

"Everyone… Else?" He squeaked quietly. However, it appeared that once again no one noticed as Sam struck up conversation with the Fenton's almost immediately. Following after the three of them, he closed the door once he had gotten inside and looked around.

Almost nothing had changed.

The couches, tables, lamps and desks were still in the same places he had remembered them to be. The fuzzy memories he had of running around and through here when he was much younger were starting to piece themselves together again. Shivering suddenly, he stuffed his shaking hands into his pockets and hunched forward, pushing him unconsciously into a defensive position.

"Can I get you anything to drink Alex?" Maddie asked, smiling to him rather cheerfully.

"Uh… Water… Yeah… That would be great thanks."

"No problem. Sam, would you mind giving me a hand with the hors-d'oeuvres?"

"Sure, no problem," she said, waving to Alex, telling him she'd be right back. Alex nodded and stood up a bit more, trying desperately to relax and not act like an animal in a cage.

"I'll go let the rest of the company know you've both arrived that the food is ready."

Nodding once more, he waited until he was sure that he was the only one in the room before letting out the air he had been holding in his lungs. Stepping forward cautiously, his heavy shoes left soft imprints in the rug behind him as he was careful to step over a stray lamp cord. Taking a seat on the large couch, he ran his hands over the drop cloth that had been tossed over it to hide the fabric underneath. He was going to check if the old upholstery was still attached to it, when a feminine voice broke through the silence.

"Sorry about dad… He's a bit eccentric at times."

Startled, he tilted his head up and looked wildly around the room for a moment, trying to locate the speaker before he turned to his right and saw a twenty one year old female standing next to the door that he knew led into the dining room. "Hope he didn't scare you too badly."

Alex just stood there, stock still before slowly pushing himself up to his feet, taking in the girl in front of him. Her red-orange hair had been pulled back into a thin braid that hung down the spine of her back lightly. A dark blue shirt covered her chest, exposing her bare shoulders as the sleeves wrapped around to the wrists of her arms. Khaki colored pants fitted her waist nicely and flared softly at the bottom, covering nice, simple, black shoes.

"Jazz?" He asked quietly with eyes slightly wide. It was almost to himself more than anyone else, but loud enough for her to hear it.

"Yeah… That's me… How did you know my name?"

Suddenly realizing his mistake, Alex stammered up the first response he could think of, his fingers fidgeting nervously. "Oh, yeah, Sam told me who you were." It was the truth for the most part, though he never got a full description from the gothic teen. Still, Jazz appeared to be satisfied as she smiled softly.

"Fair enough. Well, welcome to our house. Ignore mom and dad for the most part, intelligent people but… They have their issues."

Alex smiled back and pushed a few stray black bangs away from his face, tucking them behind his ear while his neatly kept ponytail continued to rest at the nape of his neck. "Fair enough… By the way, I'm Alex Maphton."

It was Jazz's turn to nod as she stepped further into the room, taking his hand in hers and giving it a shake. "Yes I know, Sam's told me quite a bit about you."

"She… Has?" Alex asked, trying to sound calm and relaxed, though even he could hear the occasional pitch changes in his voice that usually came with him being nervous.

"Yes actually. Says you're a nice guy too. She's right though… You do look awfully familiar…"

His heart suddenly went from pounding viciously in his chest to freezing up completely. Eyes wide; he chuckled nervously and rubbed the back of his head with his hand. He could feel the beads of cold sweat running down the back of his neck.

"Oh… R-really?"

"Yeah… In fact-"

 However, Jazz's comment was suddenly interrupted as Mrs. Fenton and Sam appeared back in the room along with Mr. Fenton and the rest of the group from a different entrance. Never had Alex been so glad to see other people.

To avoid Jazz for a moment, he ran over to help Sam with one of the trays, lifting the weight from her left arm so she could hold onto the other more easily. Placing the trays on the table, Alex brushed his hair back once more and accepted the glass of water from Maddie and began to head over to the couch once again. He didn't get too far.

"So you're Alex huh?"

It was the second time in the past ten minutes that there had been another voice that came from somewhere else in the room. This time though, it was addressing him directly, and he spun around to come face to face with an African American boy standing next to the Goth girl he had driven over here with.

"Yep, that's him. Alex, I'd like you to meet Tucker. Tucker, this is Alex." Sam said lightly, gesturing to each of them in turn. Swallowing a rather large lump in his throat, Alex stuck out his hand and tried his best to grin sincerely.

"It's-It's nice to meet you Tucker." He said, once again, trying to keep his voice steady as possible.

"Yeah, same to you."

Tucker stood easily at six feet one inch, only one inch taller than Alex himself. The dorky glasses he had once worn as a younger teenager had been replaced by slightly smaller ones, less thick and didn't take up half his face. His signature red cap however still rested upon his head but the grin that he knew so well was not set onto the teens face. Instead, it was more of a dark glare.

Just as Tucker had opened up his mouth to say something to him, Alex found a hand on his shoulder and he was turned around to meet the rest of the people in the group. After only an hour, his head was already swimming. So many faces he recognized, yet he had to act like a complete stranger to all of them. If he thought it was tough to be around Sam sometimes, it was nothing compared to being around his parents.

Though, in a way, it was very strange. Jack and Maddie were still the exact same as he had remembered. In fact, just about everyone he knew was. Sam's parents were the same, slightly dysfunctional couple with heaps of money. Tuckers parents were still as hilarious as ever, and his parents were still the same insane people as he knew so many years ago.

_'They're not your parents.'_

The sudden thought struck him as he shot up from where he was sitting. "What?"

"I know!" Mr. Fenton said, slapping his knee for the third time that night. "That's exactly what I said to him when he told me the same thing! Can you believe it?"

Alex finally realized that Jack had apparently been talking him the entire time. Only now had he just realized it as he nodded his head again to Jack, swallowing once more, stomach churning again. He was going to be sick.

"Uh… Mr. Fenton… Would you mind if I used the bathroom for a moment?"

"Yeah, sure, go right ahead Alex! And no need to be so formal, none of this 'Mr. Fenton' stuff. Call me Jack!"

"Jack… All right… Yeah…" He almost bolted up from where he was sitting and moved away from the group that was all clustered in the living room, chatting fervently about whatever the hot topics for discussion were at the moment.

"Up the stairs, the second door on the right down the main hall!" Jack yelled after him, though Alex had already begun to head that way.

"Thanks!" He called back with as much polite enthusiasm as he could muster at the moment before hurrying up the stairs and disappearing into the second level. As soon as he was out of sight from the others down below, he picked up his pace significantly and sprinted off down the carpeted hall. Counting the doors silently on the right, he ran into it, locked the bolt behind him, dropped down to both knees and threw up.

He coughed a few times roughly in his throat, his chest heaving as he gasped for air. Vomiting once more, he finally was able to stagger to his feet and flush, stumbling backwards a few paces. His lower back finally came in contact with the cold sink as he caught himself with it, bracing himself with his hands.

Calming himself softly, he closed his eyes, chin tilted down to his chest. Shivering, he slowly brought himself to turn around and pressed his hands against the white porcelain sides.

Why was he always getting so sick all the time? Whenever he was emotionally stressed, it seemed that his stomach just gave out on him… Coughing roughly a few more times, he heaved his chest, shaking his head from side to side once more.

_'Relax… I have to relax…' _He mentally told himself while his hands still continued to grip tightly onto the sink. _'Just calm down…' _

Oddly enough, after taking a few deep breaths, it felt as though he was suddenly releasing something that had been trapped inside for so long. It felt good too, like a huge weight being lifted from his shoulders… He suddenly felt…

Free?

Eyes snapping open, he suddenly realized what was happening. He forced himself to tilt his head upwards and take a good look at himself in the mirror.

His eyes were bright green.

Almost having a panic attack, he suddenly threw himself backwards as his back hit the wall across from the sink. _'**NO!** Go away! This isn't happening!' _Clutching wildly at his head, he forced everything back. _'I'm Alex Maphton! Alex! I'm not Danny any more, I'm not him!'_

"Alex… You in there?"

The sudden sound of knuckles rapping against the wooden door and a female voice speaking caused him to slowly lift his head out of his hands. Finding himself on the floor, hunched over In a corner was slightly unnerving for he hardly remembered when he had stopped standing. The knocking rapped again.

"Alex?"

Sam was standing outside.

"Yeah… I'm fine… Fine… Yeah…" Pushing himself up, he quickly took one more glance in the mirror. His eyes were back to their regular color blue. Undoing the lock on the door, he slowly stepped out. Face covered in sweat, he tried his best to make himself look as normal as ever, but Sam seemed to call his bluff.

"I'm sorry to put you through this Alex…" She said softly, shaking her head a bit and smiling. "You're not much of a people person are you?"

One hand still resting on the brass doorknob, he chuckled bitterly as he looked away. "Is it that obvious?"

Sam smiled lightly once more. "Listen… Again… I'm sorry… I forgot how shy you were… Here, I'll take you to your room and let you sleep. It's getting late anyway, you might as well."

Nodding, he pushed his sweaty bangs out of his eyes and walked forward out of the bathroom, and leaning against the wall outside. "Where am I staying?"

"The Fenton's have a room downstairs. I'll go check to see if everything's set up. You can stay here if you would like; I don't think you really want to talk to anyone right now…"

"Yeah… Thanks Sam." He said while smiling. Sam grinned and chuckled lightly.

"No problem. I'll come get you in a few." With that she gave him a light wave and headed down the stairs. Watching after her, Alex pushed himself off of the wall, placing his hands in his pockets and hunched over lightly, wandering down the upstairs hall. He quietly walked forward, before something caught his attention out of the corner of his eye.

There was his old room.

It looked the same from the outside. The familiar stickers covered it, as though no one had ever tried to remove them. If he did not know better, he would say that it looked as though someone still lived in there. Slowly placing his hand on the cold doorknob, he felt the hairs on the back of his neck prickle a bit as a sense of foreboding settled thickly in the air around him. Even so, he gently turned the knob to the left, and listened as the door clicked open.

He pushed it forward slowly, casting the single beam of light from the hallway into the darkened room. Hand almost automatically moving to the wall on his right, he found the light switch and flicked it on. Almost instantly, the place was cheerily lit, but it looked like no one had been in here in ages.

The floor was covered with dust, and it made him sneeze a few times as he walked forward through it. Everything was where he had left it.  The bed was made though; he noticed that much as he paced around. Laps, pictures, tables and chairs were in the exact same positioning as they had been five years ago. It was in an odd sense, very creepy.

He had almost half expected a fourteen year old Danny to come barging in, toss his backpack on the ground and procrastinate from doing homework as long as he could… He would pick up the phone (that was still located exactly where he had remembered it) and possibly give Sam or Tucker a call.

Sneezing once more as he walked over to his old desk, a slightly crumpled piece of paper caught his attention. Reaching a hand out, he picked it up and unfolded it. It crinkled a few times as he smoothed it out, before he held it open and read the first few lines.

_Everyone-_

_I just can't take this anymore… I need to get out of here… I'm sorry…_

_            -Danny_

His blood stopped cold as he realized what it was. The fourteen year olds handwriting was never excellent in the first place, but it was more than painfully obvious that he have been shaking violently when he wrote this, for it was almost illegible. A few parts were blurred more than others, which made him squint a bit before figuring out why the ink was smudged.

They were tears…

Ones that had been dried up a long time ago… But they still were there, having smudged the writing. He suddenly felt a pit in his stomach… He really had run… Run away and left no note to where he was going… He never wrote to tell them that he was okay… Never…

He was not even their son any more…

Placing the paper back on the desk right where he had found it, he turned around sharply and headed to the exit, but not before bumping into someone who had been standing right there, watching him the entire time. Arms crossed over his chest, he watched Alex with a very callous expression.

"**_What_** do you think you're doing?"

It was Tucker.

_-End of Chapter Five-_

_To Be Continued…_


	7. One Life to Live

_A/N: All right, welcome back! I'm going to keep the note brief this time. Some people said that when I posted this chapter earlier today, the **system re-loaded the entire story**. If that happened to you, I am sorry… But nevertheless, hopefully this one will do much better._

_Anyway, I tried to keep Tucker **IC** as much as possible, but please remember that he did loose a friend a long time ago… Plus he's five years older. Heh, but with that said, on with the fic!_

_-Chapter Six-_

_-One Life to Live-_

Alex jumped when he realized Tucker had been standing at the doorway, and who knew for how long. Unsure of what to do, he tried to unscramble the confusion that was taking over his mind as he stammered for a semi-reasonable answer. "I just-I mean… I was just-"

"-Snooping around?" Tucker finished for him, a rather dark glint in his eyes and Alex swallowed. It was painfully obvious that Tuck did not like him much.

"N-no! I mean, no… I was just looking around; I didn't mean to walk in on something private-"

"That room has been off-limits for years." The African American teenager said, crossing his arms tightly over his chest. Through Alex's eyes, he had not really changed all that much. Grew, yes, hell he grew a lot. But otherwise, it was still the same old Tucker.

…Even with the venom of loathing in his voice.

"Years?" Alex asked, slightly flabbergasted. Well, that would explain why there was so much dust on the floor.

"Yes, years. Now _please_, get out of this room."

Pulling himself back together, he narrowed his eyes at Tucker; a cold presence seemed to drift around him. Walking past the taller African American, he moved out of the room and headed down the hall before suddenly stopping and turning on his heel sharply. "You don't like me much, do you?"

Tucker had the same kind of look on his face, the scrutinizing gaze that even behind his glasses was something to be wary of. "No, I don't."

Alex paused for a moment, hands in his pockets as their unofficial staring contest continued, both trying to get the other to back down or look away. The tension in the air was so thick; it could have been cut by a knife, and a dull one at that. "Why? You only met me… What? An hour ago? I didn't think you'd be so quick to judge. Seeing as you're Sam's friend…"

"I'm not judging you on your looks." Tucker spat back at him. It was hard to believe, even to Alex that the two of them had been best friends once. However, he had to keep reminding himself that he was not Danny anymore, and Tucker had never met 'Alex'. "I swear to God though, you better be careful, because if you hurt Sam-"

"-Wait, wait, wait…  Hold up for a second… _Sam? _What the hell does she have to do with any of this?!" Alex challenged back in a demanding tone, his voice rising along with Tuckers.

"**_She_** has everything to do with this! If she didn't, I wouldn't even bother with you!"

"So then what the **_hell_** is your problem?!"

"My _problem_ is **_you!_**"

"Me? What the _fuck_? Are you **_jealous_** or something?!"

It was then that Tucker exploded. "I've talked to her for hours on the phone about you, and all she keeps saying is how much you remind her of the boy that lived in **_that room _**five years ago, **_and it's killing her!_**"

The conversation stopped dead right there, leaving a slightly out of breath Tucker with his hand raised, pointing to the slightly jarred door that lead to the room in which Alex had just been. The tension didn't ease at all, if anything, it just got thicker.

"Danny Fenton… Right?"

Tucker took his time, plotting out his next answer before speaking again very slowly, suspicion edging onto his voice. "Yes… Him… How did you-?"

"I've seen pictures. I've heard about him." Alex said, interrupting the other teen's train of thought, keeping his hands in his pockets. Truth was, while the body language made him look tougher, the only reason he had done it in the first place was because his hands were shaking violently.

Tucker remained silent for once. His lips pressed tightly together in a thin line as he glared at Alex with everything he had. It was then that he suddenly cracked, and fell to his knees, holding his face in his hands. "I could have stopped him… I could have stopped him!"

The anger from Alex's face faded quickly as he stared down at the fallen teen, shock evident on his features along with quite a great deal of confusion. "Stop him? Who?" Alex swallowed. "The… Fenton kid?"

"Yes! I left him a message on his machine but I think it hurt more than helped … I should have waited until he calmed down a bit… It's my fault for making him run…"

   
Alex just stood there, mouth partly agape, wishing he could help Tucker but at the same time, didn't know what to do about himself. He wanted to say something intelligent, something to help out his friend from long ago while at the same time, not revealing himself. However, the only thing he managed to choke out was, "message?"

Tucker nodded softly, standing up slowly and brushing himself off. Another moment of silence lapsed as he walked over to the railing that stopped people from walking off the upper floor and falling to the one down below with a slight sigh. "Yes… A message…" Taking another deep breath, he managed to pull himself together and turn his attention back to Alex. "I'm sorry you had to hear that… It's just been on my mind for a while…"

Alex nodded, a sudden weight being lifted from inside his chest, feeling a bit better now that his friend was not on the ground in anguish. "So… What did this message say?"

Tucker sighed and rapped his knuckles against the banister a few times before turning to face Alex once more with a woebegone expression. "I told him the truth. The truth about Sam… And what was probably going to happen to her…"

"Oh… Was she… Hurt or something?" Sure, he felt stupid by saying that, but he had to act like he had no idea what was going on… Otherwise… Who knows what the consequences could be…?

Five years really is a long time.

"Badly… Actually…" Tucker said softly, placing his hands in his pockets and staring down at the abandoned living room below. "We both got into a huge accident a long time ago with Danny, and wound up seriously hurt… Sam got the worst of it though, and was in the hospital for a few weeks afterwards. I was the second worst and he… Well… Luckily for him he got off pretty easy… A few bruised ribs and a badly damaged shoulder… But Sam had to have her skull cut open, and we all worried about her…

"The doctors said she would probably have brain damage… And I just couldn't deal with that fact alone, so I called Danny, knowing that after he had run from the hospital that he had most likely returned home to stew in his own guilt and probably blame himself over and over for the incident. He never picked up, but something told me he was there so I kept on talking… I've always been blamed for not being able to keep my mouth shut…

"I suppose you can figure out the rest… But he heard the news and he ran. I suppose he couldn't take it any more and just had to get out. At least, that's what the note said.

"It turned out that Sam didn't have brain damage, only a slight case of amnesia which caused her to forget a few things about everyone, mostly personalities. Basically it was like she was looking at a picture and all she could see was the facial expression and simply from that she had to try and place the personality…

"However, after a few days of being around her though, she slowly began to remember them more so than simply guessing and was back to normal in no time… But Danny wasn't around… So she couldn't gain that back… She remembers him well, yes, but she might have trouble going into depth about his personality… This is probably why she was attracted to you so quickly."

Alex blinked, suddenly snapping himself out the daze he had drifted into while listening to Tuckers words. Swallowing dryly once more, he pushed few more of his black bangs out of his eyes and leaned against the railing right along side of the African American. "What do you mean attracted to me…?"

Tucker rolled his shoulders in a simple shrug. "From what I've heard, you act a lot like he used to. At least, from what she can remember. You look a bit like he would to… An awful lot actually…"

Alex's eyes went wide and he took a slight step back. Had be been _that_ obvious? Did Sam really know and was just going along with his game…? Did Tucker know too? Did his parents? Did everyone?!

Right before he cracked, Tucker spoke once more. "Even so… I know you can't be him… After all, he's dead…"

Another moment of silence filled the air.

_Dead…_

He was believed to be dead…

Alex froze for what felt like the umpteenth time that night. Body tingling with scared adrenalin, the hairs on the back of his neck prickled as he felt his face drain of any remaining color. Everyone thought he died…?

"S-Sam told me he was still alive…" He managed to stutter out against his better instincts which were telling him to just shut his mouth and stay quiet. His palms had begun to shake again and he stuffed them into his pockets.

Tucker snorted. "She's convinced that he's still alive… Though the rest of us have given up hope… Save for Jazz of course. Sam was determined over the fact that if he had honestly died, his _spirit_ would have tried to contact us… Wishful thinking in my terms… However, I know he's dead because we had a farmer out in the country vouch that he had picked Danny up from the side of the road, but that the kid was deathly sick and died overnight…

"Apparently Danny said he had no family before he died… Therefore, the farmer burned him ceremonially, thinking no one would ever look for the body… We didn't want to believe him, but when the guy showed us his shirt… We knew… We all knew…

"After that though, life went on. Sam and I continued at Casper High before going off to college… She wanted to stay here but I talked her into leaving… I think a bit of fresh air away from this place really helped her… Danny's parents were probably the freakiest of them all… Mr. Fenton went crazy for about three months trying to pull his sons ghost from the portal… Long story… Don't ask… He's just obsessed with ghosts…"

Alex only nodded.

"One day though he suddenly gave up trying, and his parents suddenly pretended like they never had a son. I suppose it was there way of coping with it, and we just let them. On the other hand, Jazz spent a lot of time in Danny's room after that, studying his note, the message I left… She wrote out a list of what he had taken and seemingly calculated everything out… She's still convinced he's not dead… But again… No one besides Sam believes her…"

A long, cold, moment of silence followed after the teen's story of how life had been when Danny had left. Alex's palms were clammy, and his throat remained dry. He tried to choose his next words carefully, but his mind was a helpless jumble of unsaid thoughts and unasked questions.

"So… I mean… Even though he's dead… If he came back… I mean for one day or something… In that spirit form you were talking about… What would you do?"

"Truthfully?" Tucker asked calmly, tilting his gaze back over to Alex. "If I saw him right now… I would punch him as hard as I could… Because in my opinion, he deserves it…"

Alex, once again, only nodded.

-------

"And this is where you'll be staying…" Sam said while pushing the door open with her foot, arms loaded with heavy blankets and sheets that she placed down upon the stripped bed. "Sorry it wasn't set before, I know you must be tired… But it's apparently been a while since anyone has been down here, and the Fenton's wanted you to have clean sheets!"

"Thanks." Alex said quietly, a slightly forced smile resting on his lips as he rubbed the side of his arm with his palm, still slightly unnerved from his conversation with Tucker. It had ended abruptly when Sam had called him from downstairs, and he had walked off slowly, leaving the other teen still at the top of the stairs… As terrible as it sounded, he hoped he would not have to see Tucker for the rest of the stay at this house… He just could not take it…

Sam delicately tucked in the corners of the sheets and began to unfold the quilt, turning her gaze over to Alex who was gazing at the skylight that was set above the bed, carved into the ceiling. It was the only window the room had.

"Tucker gave you a hard time… Didn't he?"

Slightly startled once again, he snapped his attention away from the star filled sky above and back down to her. "Hmm? What?"

Sam draped the quilt over the edge of the bed, folded it, and smoothed out the few remaining wrinkles in it before walking over to him. "He hassled you… Am I right?"

"Tucker?" Alex said softly, letting his pale hands fall back at his sides before sighing quietly. "He's protective of you… You're lucky to have someone like that."

A small smile cracked onto Sam's face as she stood across from him, arms crossed softly over her stomach. "Yeah… We're close. Like siblings. I'm sorry if he seemed a bit cold, but as you said, he's protective of me as if I was honestly related to him. I of course, would do the same to him. I'm sorry again though… He's always had bad timing. Just, try to get a good nights sleep, okay?"

Alex chuckled softly, finally feeling a bit better as he nodded. "All right, I'll give it my best."

Sam looked at him for a few moments more, before suddenly, she had wrapped his arms around his torso in a tight hug. Alex, slightly shocked, looked down at her for a moment before carefully placing his arms around her own frame. "You okay?"

"I'm fine… Just… Thank you Alex…"

He blinked a few times, still vaguely confused. "For what?"

"Just for coming back here with me… I mean… I know this is hard for you… Even though you don't know a single person here… It's just, I don't think I could come back to this place alone…"

"But you wouldn't have been alone…" He commented softly, unconsciously rubbing her back with his palm to ease any worry or guilt she wasn't even aware that she had. "I mean, you have your parents here, Jazz, and Tucker."

"I know…" Sam said quietly, pulling back from the hug. "It's just… You know… I can't really talk to them… Because they all went through the same thing when the whole mess started… And well… You… I feel like I can open up to you… Say a few things I normally can't say… And I don't want it to sound like I keep you around as something to vent to… But… You know what I mean… Right?"

Alex smiled softly and nodding, understanding where she was coming from and reached a hand up to ruff her hair lightly. "Yeah, I know what you mean… Thank you too… For getting me off that campus… It's nice to be somewhere else."

"Yeah… I know… But anyway, I'm gonna let you sleep. Have a good night, all right?"

"Sure. I'll give it my best shot. Night Sam."

"Night Alex…" She said softly, walking to the door. And with one more look back at the male teen, she waved lightly, and closed the door behind her.

The hazy white-blue light from the moon shown down through the small room, providing him just enough visibility to strip from his clothes, change in to more appropriate nightwear and slip into the cool sheets of the bed. In all honesty, he hardly remembered this room… Hell, he never knew that Jack and Maddie _had _a guest room in the first place. Still, it was comfortable enough as he slowly felt his consciousness give way, and he fell into a deep slumber…    

_He was curled up in the corner of his small, one roomed apartment. The place was in bad shape. Water was dripping from the ceiling and fell into a small, silver pan he had set up under the leak. Thunder continued to roar outside, making its presence known. He had developed an uncanny fear of storms ever since he had almost died in one… At the age of fifteen, it was hard to believe that he could have gotten his own place. But the supervisor of it did not care who stayed in the place, so long as he got money. Therefore, that was how he ended up with this dump._

_The only light flickered from the incredibly blurry TV that was set on a battered coffee table near the  center of the room. The smell of cats reeking from the carpet made his eyes water while he pulled himself into a tighter ball, listening to the crackling voice of the anchorwoman on the television. _

_"The search still continues for fourteen, now fifteen year old Daniel Fenton. Eyewitnesses report the boy was last seen running from the county hospital back to his home exactly one month ago to this date. Parents plead that if you have any information on where he might be-"_

_At that exact moment, there was a bright flash of lightning and the power went off completely, sending the already dark room into total blackness. He was beyond frightened… Shaking uncontrollably, he squeezed his eyes shut and began to hum to himself, teeth chattering as the sound of thunder echoed in the room. _

_Heart pounding in his ears, he suddenly clenched at his head and shook it wildly, shoulders heaving while in a blind panic, he shot up from where he was sitting, knocking a table over as a few glasses shattered on the ground. _

_"Someone help me… Please… Someone help me!"_

_Clawing at his face with his hands, he sobbed through his screams, spinning around in the temporary insanity he was now facing._

_"God… Someone… HELP ME!"_

"Danny… Danny! Wake up!"

_"Help me…  God help me!"_

"Danny!"

Eyes snapping open, he threw himself forward into a sitting position, taking a gasp of air, trying to catch his breath. However, instead of staring into an empty room as he previously thought, he found himself gazing into a pair of sea-green colored eyes, belonging to none other than Jasmine Fenton.

…And she had called him Danny.

_-End of Chapter Seven-_

_-To Be Continued…-_


	8. Unexpected Turmoil

_A/N: Okay, you asked (and threatened) for it, and you got it! That means I would like all other authors and reviewers to temporarily put their evil attack penguins, llamas, monkeys, ECT on temporary hiatus from killing me. Though I have the feeling most of you will **murder** me for the cliff-hanger on this chapter. _

_I apologize for the weight on this chapter, but I've been trying my best. I have a job that is taking quite a bit of my free time away, so please bear with me. While this is not one that I am particularly proud of, I hope you will enjoy it all the same._

**_I credit the last line Alex/Danny speaks in the first exchange between him and Jazz to S.E. Hinton._**_ The line came from the book called The Outsiders which is one of my favorite novels of all time. I say this because while some of you read this chapter, you might see it and thing 'that's plagiarism!' _

_Anyway, please enjoy the eighth chapter in this series. And as I always say, on with the fic!_

_-Chapter Eight-_

_-Unexpected Turmoil-_

He sat there in a shock, eyes wide, while a prickling feeling of dread slowly washed over him. He could feel his own face drain of any color that was left in it, making him appear ghostly white even in with the hazy light of the moon. His stomach did a very nasty flip-flop.

She had just called him Danny…

"J-Jazz? I-I-I mean Jasmine… I mean… What… What are you d-doing down here?" Alex stammered out the best he could while trying to keep his voice steady. However, he failed miserably at any attempts to remain calm.

The twenty one year old sighed softly, "I heard you yelling, so I ran down here… Must have been some nightmare… I haven't heard you scream like that since you were seven…"

Still chalk white, he opened and closed his mouth a few times, trying to speak. Finally, he was able to form a short, yet intelligent phrase. "What… What are you talking about?"

"Listen," Jazz spoke in a soothing tone, "everything's going to be okay, Danny…"

"Why do you keep calling me that!?" He blurted out, his torso shaking violently as he let his gaze flick around the room, trying to find an exit that was not blocked. Alex felt like a caged animal.

Jazz's eyebrows furrowed for a moment before a wave of understanding hit her and she reached out a hand to brush a few cold, sweaty bangs out of his face. "Because it's your name… Danny, I know… It's okay… I know…"

"N-no… No you don't know…" He reached up his own arm to swat away her hand. "You don't know anything!" Yelling that last part out, he shunned away from her, trying to push himself as far away from her as he could, his back pressed against the headboard. Granted, he only moved back around an inch, but he could not do too much else…

The older of the two Fenton's suddenly came to a full understanding of the situation and pushed herself off the bed, giving him the space he wanted. She looked upset. Though that did not stop the wild look in Alex's eye, or the ridiculously pale complexion he was currently supporting, it did cause him to relax the clench on the sheets he had.

"All right… Alex… I understand… You win… This conversation never happened."

Jazz slowly moved to the door, away from the ridged year old still in the bed. Her facial expression held nothing other than utter hurt and a bit of vague disbelief. She turned around to face him once more, hand resting in the doorframe, her eyes watering slightly. "How much longer… How much longer will you hide…?"

She kept her gaze on him for only a moment more, then closed the door behind her and was gone. The room had been plunged back into darkness. He continued to quiver in the bed. Why, of all nights, did she have to admit she knew? How long had she known?

The same unanswered questions that had run through his mind before sprang to life once again. Still gripping the sheets, he caught sight of his pale hand in the moonlight. Why did he come here?

It took him a few more moments to fully recover before he pushed the sheets off of him and stood up on the wooden floor. Walking to the door, he opened it and left the room. Turning right, he began to climb up the stairs, carefully avoiding the seventh step, which he knew to creak whenever weight was set upon it. Finally reaching the top landing, he kept as silent as he could, before approaching a cracked door at the end of the hallway. A grandfather clock downstairs chimed two in the morning as he peered around the wooden barricade to take a look at the girl inside.

Jazz was sitting on her bed, knees tucked up against her chest, looking at a small photo album that was placed on the sheets in front of her. The small light on her bedside table was on, casting a warm and inviting light through the room which greatly contrasted the outside hallway he was standing in. Softly turning each page with a soft crinkle of plastic, she reached up a sleeve to wipe under her eyes.

Shoving his pride aside and closing his eyes, Alex lifted on of his hands up, and rapped softly on her door three times. A weak 'come in…' followed as he pushed into the room, closing the door behind him and stood by the wall.

"Danny and I were so close when we were younger…" She said quietly, never even looking up from the album. "Then of course, he grew up and we drifted apart a bit, but I always tried to be there for him. I think he knew it too, even if he did call me a fink sometimes…"

Alex smiled weakly at her last statement, knowing it was true and it helped to lighten some of the somberness in the room.

"Of course, Danny was a proud boy, and he would never openly admit that he needed my help or advice. I can understand that too… I just wish he could trust me enough to know that I would never exploit him, or do anything that might actually hurt him. I think he's forgotten just how much I love him…" With that, she slowly tilted her green gaze up to look at Alex who was still standing in the corner of her room. He paused for a moment, unsure of what to do, before stepping forward softly and speaking.

"I don't think he's forgotten, nor do I think it's an issue of trust… I think he's just so confused, he doesn't know what to believe anymore."

Jazz scooted over on her bed a bit more, making some room for Alex to sit down on. It was almost an identical setting of the one they had been in downstairs, only flip flopped.

"Then he should ask." She said softly, flipping through another page in the album, scanning random pictures of her, her mother, her father and of course, Danny. "I want to help him…"

"You said he was proud though." Alex added, crossing his arms softly over his abdomen. "Maybe he thinks he can handle everything on his own… Maybe he wants to figure things out for himself."

Jazz shook her head softly. "It's been five years. I think he's suffered enough. I just want to know he's safe… I want him home… We all do…"

Alex nodded and looked down softly, his shoulders sagging a bit. "But what… What if he doesn't know how too? What if he feels like he can't?"

Suddenly, there was a warm hand on his shoulder and he tilted his gaze over to Jazz who had a soft look in her eyes and a small, sincere smile on her face. "He can always come home. Whenever he's ready, I know he will."

"What if he_ is_ ready… But he's too afraid?"

"There's no reason to be afraid. From the moment you walked through the door I knew who you were. I've had all evening to call you on it, but I haven't. You _can_ trust me." She concluded, giving him a reassuring squeeze.

However, Alex looked shocked. "You knew… For that long?" He squeaked out, eyes wide again. If she had any doubts, he knew his last statement just sealed the case. "How? I thought I might have been yelling something in that dream… Was I that obvious from the start?"

Jazz shook her head softly. "No you weren't… But there are certain traits and habits you still have from a long time ago that I was able to pick up on… However, that wasn't the main thing. The dream just confirmed my suspicions. What really tipped me off was your last name."

"Maphton? How did that tip you off?"

Jazz chuckled softly. "Maphton is just an anagram of Phantom."

"Well yeah… I knew that much… But still, how could that have-" Alex suddenly stopped mid-phrase as his eyes widened a second time, looking back over to Jazz in shock. "You… You know about that… Too?"

Jazz nodded softly, reaching up to push a few more bangs out of his blue eyes. "Yes I have… But please… We'll leave that for another night… Right now… I'm just glad you home…" And with that, she wrapped her arms tightly around his frame in a hug, holding onto him with tears slowly building in her eyes. "I've missed you so much…"

Looking down at her, he softly wrapped his arms around her as well, holding her tightly. "I've missed you too Jazz… I'm glad to be home…"

Sitting there for a few minutes, they both remained silent before slowly pulling away. Jazz's eyes were still slightly watery, and she chuckled weakly, wiping away at them once more. "I didn't think… I'd ever see you again…"

He nodded his head lightly and looked down at his feet. "I'm sorry… Just… For everything… Maybe if I was a little bit stronger… I would have come home a long time ago…"

"Don't blame yourself Danny… You were scared… You didn't know what to do-"

"Please…" He suddenly interrupted her, eyes clenched shut as he looked away. "Please don't call me that… I'm sorry… But please… It's Alex."

Jazz looked at him softly once more, her smile gone as she just looked at him with a soft expression. "All right Alex. Until you're ready…" Slowly she reached up a hand and rubbed his back softly. Once again a few moments of silence past before she finally spoke. "To keep this charade up, you must lie to yourself a lot, don't you?"

Alex nodded softly, his own eyes suddenly taking a glazed look to them as he turned away, a single tear rolling down one side of his face. "I lie to myself all the time…" The tear then dripped off his chin and splashed against the floor.

"But I never believe me…"

--------

Alex had spent the rest of the night in Jazz's room. He had fallen asleep on the floor sometime around four in the morning after a rather emotional discussion that drained him of his energy. But it was because of that, that they both ended up coming down the stairs at the same time the next morning. It was a rainy day, and thunder could be heard echoing quietly in the distance. Black clouds continued on as far as he could see.

Appearing in the kitchen, Jazz a few steps behind him, he was busy pulling his rather messy black hair up into a ponytail when a cup of coffee was shoved in front of him.

"Good morning, Alex. I made some coffee for you. You too Jazz." Sam said lightly, holding the gray mug out for him.

"Oh, thanks." Alex said, accepting the coffee from her, smiling, and taking a seat down at the round kitchen table. Looking around, he realized that Jazz and Sam were the only other two in the room at the moment and he turned in his chair to look at the gothic teen. "Where is everyone?"

"All the guests went home last night." Sam replied, pouring a cup for Jazz who accepted it from her and went to take a seat next to him. "Save for Tucker of course, he's still sleeping I think… Jack and Maddie went out to get some more groceries."

"Ah, I see." Alex said, turning back to face his coffee. Terribly enough, he silently wished that Tucker had left along with the guests…

"Something wrong?" She asked, taking a seat down at the table as well and pouring some cream into the bitter brown liquid. He hesitated for a moment, and Jazz quickly stepped in.

"He was just up late last night. I was having problems with my genetics homework and he decided to give me a hand. By the way, did you see the report about the new brand of tofu for Ultra Recyclo-Vegetarians?"

Alex released the breath that had been building up in his lungs out quietly when Jazz diverted the conversation. However, since when did she know he took genetics…? Oh well, at least he was off the hook for speaking at the moment. Raising the coffee cup to his lips, he took a small sip, listening to the discussion between his sister and Sam. It was rather amusing to see Sam so riled up about something so small…

A sudden loud crashing noise jarred him from his thoughts once again. All three of them turned to face the kitchen door, wondering what happened. It was after a few minutes more that Jazz finally broke the silence.

"That sounded like it was coming from the lab… Odd… I didn't know that mom and dad were back yet…"

"Yeah… I didn't hear their car…" Sam added, still staring at the door.

Alex turned his gaze to the window that led outside, and he took a glimpse of the garage. The door was still sealed, and there was no sign that anyone had pulled in. Rain had begun to pound against the ground, causing small little wet stains to form on the cement and concrete. It _was_ odd… And he had a bad feeling about it… Nevertheless, he turned back to the table and took another sip of his coffee.

He hated it when he had a bad feeling about things.

As if irony just wanted to make things difficult for him today, it was only a few seconds later that Tucker came bursting into the kitchen. One hand on the door frame, he took a few moments to catch his breath and survey the room around him and its occupants. Seeing Sam, he nodded softly to her.

"Uh… Sam… I need your help…"

Sam slowly stood up from the table and smiled lightly, turning to face them both. "If you'll excuse me for a moment…" Heading over to the door, she waited for Tucker who had shot a very meaningful look at Jazz, then flicked his gaze over to Alex, before looking back over to her again.

To Alex's utter surprise, she inclined her head in a sharp nod, and took another sip of her coffee. Once that was done, Tucker and Sam both turned the corner, as if simply chatting about a broken computer. However, the sound of running feet echoed through the room, disappearing down into the lab after a few moments, and Alex blinked.

"Okay… I totally missed something didn't I?"

Jazz did not answer. Instead, she set her coffee cup back down on the round table and kept her gaze on the door. Thunder echoed in the distance once more. Vaguely confused, Alex's eyebrows furrowed and he pulled his chair a bit more to his sister's side. "Jazz… Are you okay?"

"No… No I'm not… I'm worried…" She said softly, dragging her fingers over the rim of her mug.

"What? Why?" Sure, Alex thought what they had done was odd… But it never crossed his mind why there should be anxiety over it.

"Because that means there's probably a ghost in the house…"

Alex froze. "A… G-Ghost?"

Jazz nodded once more and turned her gaze back over to him. "After you… Left… I finally told Sam and Tucker that I knew about your powers. Because they had more experience fighting ghosts than myself, they had me try to divert others from suspecting things and keeping my parents out of the lab while they fought them…"

"You mean," Alex interrupted her, staring with wide eyes. "They fought the ghosts by themselves?"

"What else could they do? You weren't here to help them."

Alex winced and pulled back. That had really stung… Jazz noticed the downcast look on his face and she reached a hand out to cover his, giving him a reassuring squeeze. "I'm sorry… What I mean was, the attacks came even though you were gone. However, it seemed once that the news the halfa was no longer around, they stopped bothering us and just went away."

"But now there back…" Alex said softly, running his fingers though his hair as he stood up. "This is exactly what I wanted to avoid… This is exactly what I was trying to keep away!"

"W-what?" Jazz asked, still sitting down at the table, looking up at him.

"Sam got hurt, and it was my fault. I was the reason the ghosts were coming and I knew it too! And my friends just had to get involved! I should never have told them about my powers in the first place… Then maybe I could have _lived a normal **life**_, and maybe I would have stayed **_home_**! And I-"

He suddenly stopped his ranting when he caught sight of the look on Jazz's face. Her eyes were wide, jaw slightly slack and she lifted a shaky finger up. "D-Danny…"

Right before he was about to ask what was wrong, he found himself choking on something that felt like a dry fluid in his throat. Gasping, a blue, ectoplasmic smoke escaped from his lips and curled into the air in front of him, before slowly vanishing away. Eyes wide as well, he took a few steps back and stumbled, securing himself with the kitchen counter behind him. Everything was silent as a flicker of lightning shot past the window.

It had been five years since that last happened…

Another loud crashing noise echoed from the room below, accompanied by a loud boom of thunder, shaking the house and bleeding through the walls into the kitchen. No… This wasn't happening.

He hardly even realized that Jazz had sprinted out of the room and into the main hallway. Eyes, if possible, widened even more and he screamed. "Jazz! No!" And shot into the hallway after her. The twists and turns seemed endless, but he finally came across her pulling on the lab door with everything she had. Running just a little bit faster, he reached out a hand and wrenched hers off the doorknob. "What do you think you're doing!? You could be killed!"

"So could they!" She challenged back with everything she had, anger laced onto her words as she reached out to pull on the handle again. However, she was stopped once more by Alex.

"No… No Jazz… Don't go down there…" He said, not relinquishing the grip he had on her wrists.

"I can't, if you haven't noticed." She said with a light growl and broke her hands free from his grasp. "It's locked, and mom and dad have the key."

Gazing back at the tightly bolted lab door, he pressed a hand against it, palm touching the cold metal. "It's locked for you, but not for me. Jazz, keep an eye on the storm outside, and if… Mom and dad… Come home; try to stop them from entering the lab at all costs…"

He did not give Jazz the chance to reply, as his body slowly disappeared with a cold wave that felt like ice. He had forgotten what it felt like, to go intangible, as he slowly stepped through the door, re-appearing on the other side. Standing at the top of the steps, he called his body to reform back to normal, and he stood at the top of the stairs, gazing down.

He could only see both Tucker and Sam's backs, but he spotted the thermos tightly clenched in the male teen's hand. The portal was spinning in a slow cycle, the sickly green light with yellow gas clouds drifting in it illuminated the room, causing shadows to flicker on the inanimate objects of the room.

The blue smoke drifted from his lips as something suddenly began to form from the portal. He braced himself, this was it…

A maniacal laughter slowly echoed in the room, coming from the ghost that was forming in the portal. Alex's eyebrows furrowed, he had heard that laughter before… The same one so many times from when he was still fourteen… The ghost continued to form, before bursting out in a bluish colored light and yelling as loudly as it could.

"I am… The Box Ghost!"

Alex almost fell over.

"Ruler of all things square and-"

"We know!" Came the unanimous shout from both Tucker and Sam who had relaxed considerably, seeing as the threat they had feared before… Really wasn't one.

Sam, who was busy shaking her head tilted her gaze up to the bizarre looking blue ghost and spoke to it. "What the hell do you think you're doing? You really scared us both out of our wits!"

"Yeah," Tucker added, lowering his hand that held the thermos down and sighing. "I thought we told you not to contact us unless something was really wrong."

_'Contact?'_ Alex thought quietly to himself, still crouched down at the top of the stairs, watching the action below. Did that mean that they made some kind of agreement with the Box Ghost? Strange… He hadn't seen that one coming…

"Oh, but there is! I, the Box Ghost, bring important news!"

"Well what is it?" Sam asked exasperated, rolling her eyes and pushing her hair back out of her face. "I thought you said that everyone in ghost zone finally decided to leave us alone."

"They did!" The blue ghost added, drifting through the air, admiring randomly placed boxes while being followed closely with a stern gaze from Tucker. "But now, they sense the halfa again! And they want revenge!" He said dramatically, punctuating the end of each sentence with an exclamation mark.

"I hate to break it to you… But the _halfa_ is dead." Tucker said through gritted teeth, clenching the thermos even tighter.

"Maybe so! But they still sense it! They might come soon! Be prepared for-" The Box Ghost suddenly stopped, gazing back at the portal which had suddenly started to glow even brighter before. Hurriedly, the ghost spoke again. "I must go now! And… Erm… Uh… BEWARE!"

With that, the crazy blue spirit shot through the roof of the lab, leaving a vaguely confused and slightly dumbfounded Sam and Tucker behind. They stood still, gazing at the ceiling before Sam finally spoke. "What do you think… He meant…?"

"It means that we're going to have some ghost problems again…" Tucker said quietly, swallowing firmly and gazing at the glowing portal. "Come on… We need to get out of here-"

But before he could finish, a massive roar echoed through the room as a huge, green ghost ripped its way through the portal. Once it had emerged, tons of little gremlin like creatures spurted out behind it, cackling evilly and surrounding what appeared to be a shapeless blob with red eyes. "Halfa…" It croaked between a sticky looking mouth. "Find the halfa!"

The little creatures then shot through the roof, much in the same pattern of the Box Ghost that had only left moments before. Eyes wide, both teens still on the ground took a few steps back, a bit too stunned to know what to do.

Alex, still crouched on the top of his stairs, stood up and backed himself up against the wall. Breathing heavily, nervous sweat already begun to pour down his back. This was not good… And that was a major understatement…

"You!" It roared down at the two humans in the lab. "Where is the halfa!?"

"He's dead!" Tucker yelled back, Sam unable to respond at all. "He's been dead for five years! He should be in the ghost zone with you!"

"You lie!" It screeched, and swung an arm out to slam into the side of Tuckers face, causing him to fly backwards and skid across the floor. The ghost was slow, but very strong. Sam screamed, running over to Tuckers side and kneeling down by him, trying to help him stand up again.

Alex continued to watch from a distance, eyes wide, and unable to move. Breathing heavily, he couldn't get his limbs to respond at all. Suddenly, something hit him like a bolt of lighting.

That was the same ghost.

The same ghost that made him run five years ago.

The same ghost that put him through **_hell!_**

And before he even knew what he was doing, he had shot forward, jumping over the railing, and sprinting forward as fast as he could. The ghost had begun to advance on the both of them, and raising a powerful fist, it began to swing it down. But instead, Alex threw himself at it, his shoulder coming in contact with the green colored ghost, knocking him severely off course.

He struck the ground hard, and he felt the cold floor scrape across his skin as he went rolling across it, hitting his back against the wall. The ghost, pulling itself back up, lost all interest in both Tucker and Sam. Instead, it headed over to Alex as he desperately tried to get himself back onto his feet. However, he wasn't fast enough as the ghost shot an arm out, wrapping a cold grip around his neck and hauling him off his feet.

"ALEX!" Sam screamed from below, trying to get Tucker up, but frozen again at the sight of her college friend in the clutches of the ghost. Tightening it's grasp on his neck, Alex choked a few times, finding his windpipe being crushed, slowly finding his consciousness slipping away from the lack of air.

It was then that he suddenly heard a voice scream in the back of his head. It was so familiar, but he couldn't place it.

_'Go ghost!' _It yelled loudly, trying to get him to respond. _'What are you waiting for? Do it now!'_

"But… Tucker… Sam…" He muttered weakly, unable to hear anything else that was going around him, dizziness taking over his mind as no oxygen was able to reach him.

_'Do it for them!'_

He was able to finally place the voice. It was his subconscious… The same voice that had teased him for years in his life… Keeping him sane… And there, on the brink of unconsciousness, he knew who it was. It was his fourteen year old self. Danny Fenton. The boy he had killed when he ran away… But was still very much alive in his mind…

"I'm…" He muttered quietly, trying to mutter out the words, his vision blurring around him.

_'Do it **NOW!**'_

"I'm…" He gasped, before suddenly flicking his eyes open, and with the last breath he could muster, he tilted his head back and screamed;

"I'm going ghost!"

_-End of Chapter Eight-_

_To Be Continued…_


	9. Broken Ribs and Broken Hearts

_A/N: What is there that I can say about this? It's been a full year since I've updated last, and I know I pissed quite a few people off. Nevertheless, I would like to present to you the ninth chapter in the saga. I apologize greatly for my unbelievably slow update, I have had an incredibly rough year, and I have barely had any free time to get this out. But now that I did, I hope you all can forgive me for now. Just a few quick things before we begin._

_First off, I'm still in the process of wondering whether I like this chapter or not. I know for a fact I don't like the battle scene, but I felt as though I had to get something out there. I might re-do it later. Though there isn't a lot of action in this chapter, I hope you can get a sense of the inner turmoil of all the characters due to Danny's sudden return._

_Second, I want to thank all of the readers who did such incredible fan art on this piece of fiction! I'm afraid I don't have all the links updated yet, but I will be posting them all soon so you may all go look at them. They rule, trust me, and totally worth checking out._

_Third, agian, I AM SO SORRY! It took me forever, but I hope now that it's all settled out, and I'll get the next chapter out much sooner, all I can say is on with the fic!_

  


_-Chapter Nine-_

  


_-Broken Ribs and Broken Hearts- _

_"I'm going ghost!"_

  


The last word was strained, as if he had just used the final breath his lungs had been desperately trying to hold onto. It did the trick however, as suddenly; the room was illuminated by a bright flash of white. The ghost grunted, using its opposing arm that was not holding onto Alex to shield his eyes.

  


A blue-white ring formed around Alex's stomach, before separating into two and moving in opposite directions up and down his body. His clothing seemed to melt away, as a black body suit took their place. Silver white gloves and boots formed, along with a belt around his center.

  


Hair snapping out of it's ponytail, it flashed from a raven black to a shining white, hard blue eyes becoming a radiating green. A stark white letter symbol "D" appeared on his chest, as the transformation completed. The flash of blinding light died down, as the now transformed Alex took that moment to turn intangible and slip out of the ghost's clenched fist.

  


Landing on the ground in a crouch, he remained in that position with his head tilted down to the linoleum floor of the lab. Meanwhile, the ghost, (after the spots from the flash had left its eyes) looked down upon the figure on the ground and let out a chilling laugh.

  


"Well, well… So it appears I was correct… The halfa has returned…" There was another menacing chuckle as it drew even closer.

  


Still crouched, Alex suddenly spoke. "My name isn't 'the halfa'. It's Danny…" He said, his illuminated green eyes flashing with hatred. "Danny Phantom!"

  


And with that, he leaped off the ground with a tremendous force, pulling his fist back before slamming it straight under the ghosts chin.

  


The ectoplasmic beast had not been prepared for such a violent attack, and went flying backwards across the expanse of the lab. Not giving it any time to recover, Danny went flying after it before flipping in mid air, locking his ankles together and kicking it hard back down towards the floor.

  


It had been five years since he had last done anything of this nature, but an unseen force inside in the back of his mind was driving him onwards, telling him what to do.

  


The ghost landed against the floor with a loud smacking sound, a large dent being formed around it from the force of impact. Standing back up, it growled, not looking quite as happy as it had been before.

  


"A worthy opponent yet again…" The sludge form muttered, sticky bubbles of goo around its mouth inflating when he spoke before popping and landing back against its face.

  


However, Danny had no time to think as suddenly a massive hand shot out and swatted him back down to the ground with an incredible amount of force. He could have sword he heard a crack, but fought hard to stand back up again.

  


He flipped over onto his back just in time to see the massive green hand come flying back down at him again, ready to completely crush him. Putting his hands up in front of his face, he braced for the impact, but when the slam against the ground came and he wasn't in any more pain, he opened his eyes to find he had instinctively gone intangible.

  


Taking time to register that fact for only a second, he forced himself to fly off the ground once more, reforming and planning his next attack before he suddenly heard a scream.

  


"Get, off of me!"

  


Turning his head to the side, he found that Sam was being held in place by four of the little gremlin creatures that had appeared with the arrival of the sludge ghost. Tucker was nowhere in sight.

  


The said ghost seemed to hear the cry too, and with a gooey grin, stuck his hand out and began to fire an ectoplasmic beam at her.

  


_'No… SAM!'_

  


Forcing himself to fly at speeds he was sure he had never reached before as a younger teenager, he flew directly into Sam, knocking her down against the ground as he landed on top of her, shielding her from the blast.

  


He didn't have time to put up a force field however, so the beam hit him square in the back which forced him to let out a cry of pain, but he fought hard to keep Sam beneath him and out of harms way.

  


When the painful experience was over, he found himself only inches away from Sam's face, his eyes looking into her own wide ones as she barely managed to speak, complete shock totally evident on her features.

  


"D-Danny…?" She asked, her mouth partly agape as she reached one of her hands up to try and touch his face.

  


Her fingers never connected however, as suddenly he felt himself being lifted off her and thrown across the room. Slamming into the wall with a tremendous amount of force, before he fell completely a hand was locked around his neck, pressing him tightly against the wall.

  


Gagging, he had no time to do anything else, include go intangible as suddenly a heavy and fast swinging fist collided with the center of his chest, and there was a loud cracking noise that everyone could hear.

  


Something had defiantly broken this time.

  


Releasing him suddenly, Danny slid down against the wall and landed in a crumpled heap on the ground. So quickly he had lost, after all the battles he had fought as a simple fourteen year old…

  


The ghosts dark laugh filled the air once more… "How the mighty have fallen… Now just hold still while I finish the job…"

  


"Hey, why don't you come after me instead?"

  


The ghost that had been charging up another ectoplasmic beam to fire at Danny suddenly turned his head to find none other than Tucker standing there, taunting him.

  


"Yeah that's right, what, you think the halfa's the only one who wants to fight?"

  


"Tucker… No…" Danny managed to wheeze out despite the blinding pain that had taken over his body for the moment as he tried to get his wind back.

  


"Oh this will be fun." The sludge monster said with another sickening grin as he advanced upon the other teenager. That was enough for Danny to suddenly shoot into the air, racing this time for tucker but a voice stopped him.

  


"Danny! Catch!"

  


His sister was standing at the top of the stairs, having managed to open the door one way or another, the thermos in hand. Reaching back with her hand, she tossed the ghost trapping machine in the air and it sailed perfectly in his direction.

  


He caught the thermos in what seemed to be slow motion. Hands reaching out to grasp hold of the cylinder, his fingers locked around it, pulling the metal container close to his chest. Completing a flip off the back wall of the lab, he propelled himself off with his feet, and stretching his arms out in front of him, flicked the power button of the thermos on. The high pitched mechanical hum greeted his ears, and a large beam of pure white light shot out from the center directly at the ghost, just as it was ready to blast Tucker.

  


The monster let out a screaming cry as it was surrounded in the white suction beam as it pulled him back into the small confines of the thermos. "I'll... Get... YOU " It yelled out in a murderous rage, but it was too late, it was sucked into the thermos. Shoving the top back on and twisting it tightly closed, Danny raced forward and threw the entire thermos through the portal to the ghost zone. Slamming his fist down on a large red button positioned at the side of the portal, the yellow and black metal doors closed shut with a deafening bang.

  


It was over.

  


The cold air that had once polluted the spacious lab seemed to disappear with the ghosts departure, but the entire area was heavily damaged. Books were scattered with their pages ripped out, beakers reduced to small glass shards, scattered across the floor. Shelves were toppled over and dented, liquids of all colors forming pools on the linoleum.

  


But despite the damage, it was still over.

  


Shakily pulling his hand off the trigger button, Danny forced himself to stand up. Turning around to face the back of the lab, his vision was fading in and out of focus, but he could make out three figures huddled together in the back.

  


"Tucker... Jazz..." His voice sounded as though his entire throat had been turned into sand paper. His whole body still shaking, he attempted to take a few more hesitant steps towards the group, but with every one he seemed to get weaker.

  


"Sam..." Danny managed to gasp out before two white hot beams surrounded him, stripping him of his black and white body suit and forcing him back into the clothing he had been wearing earlier that morning.

  


However, it seemed as though extending his arm out to reach her was the last thing his body could do, as suddenly, his legs gave out beneath him and he collapsed completely.

  


He was unconscious before he even hit the ground.

  


-X-

  


Birds... He could hear birds chirping in the distance. Soft yet distinctive cries of morning songbirds greeted his ears as he slowly drifted back to consciousness. A warm, gentle breeze crossed over his face, and he finally found the strength to open his eyes. Rays of sunlight broke through the glass panels of the window, casting beams of yellow light across the white bed sheets that had been draped over his form.

  


A slight constriction on the back of his head told him his hair had been pulled back again, keeping it out of his way and he was grateful for that for he doubted he could have done it himself. His arms felt like lead, and he feared trying to lift them up.

  


So he remained still, in a room he did not recognize, on a date he wasn't sure of, at a house he hadn't been in for five years.

  


For the first time in a long while, he felt like crying at the sure misery of the entire situation. He was still disoriented, and barely knew what had happened.

p>Having too much of a headache to even attempt to sort everything out, he closed his eyes and opted instead to try and fall asleep again. But he never got the chance, since the sound of voices were echoing in this distance, from beyond the closed door. Steadily though, they got louder until he could make out some of their conversation.

"…If he doesn't wake up soon, I'm calling the doctor."

  


"And tell them what Jazz, there was a ghost attack?"

  


"Tucker, what if he's hurt more than our machines could scan? He's my brother, and your friend! You should care more."

  


"_Was_ my friend."

  


The door suddenly swung open and slammed into the side of the wall with a loud bang that made Danny grimace as the pound seemed to reverberate ten times as loud within his skull.

  


"Listen, I don't care what you say, I just want…"

  


He tuned the rest of the conversation out, wondering how long it would be until someone realized he was conscious once again. However, as he looked past the two arguing figures, he noticed that someone already had.

  


Sam stood behind the two of them and a little too the right, leaning against the door frame with only her shoulder and gazing back at him with violet colored eyes. His own blue ones locked steadily into hers, and he could see the red rings around them. Her eyeliner had been smudged slightly under her eyes, as if she had done her best to take care of it, but couldn't get it all off with her fingers.

  


She had been crying…

  


His heart suddenly felt like it had shattered, and the fact must have reflected in his eyes for Sam suddenly shut hers and looked away.

  


"…And furthermore- Danny!"

  


Hearing his name being called, he suddenly wrenched his eyes away from Sam's form as his sister suddenly swooped over to him. There was a soft, comforting smile on Jazz's face as she sat down next to him, reaching a hand over to stroke the side of his face. "You're awake…" She sounded relieved.

  


Gritting his teeth suddenly, he tried to pull himself up but before he got even halfway there, a horrible spasm of pain shot through his chest and he let out a strangled gasp. His sister's hands were suddenly on his shoulders, pushing him back down on the bed.

  


"You have to stay down; you've broken two of your ribs and fractured three more. If you get up your bandages won't keep them in place to heal properly."

  


At that moment he realized for the first time that there was a thick layer of gauzy bandage wrap circling the lower part of his chest. He moved one of his hands to lightly press against them and winced again at the pain he caused himself.

  


He was going to have one hell of a nasty bruise.

  


No one spoke for a few moments, and that was all the time needed for a thick tension to fall upon the room. A tension that he knew would befall them all if this exact situation ever played out.

  


_'Well,'_ he congratulated himself._ 'At least you were prepared.'_

  


Closing his eyes for a moment, he took a deep breath which stung a bit, for his ribs protested being stretched, but he didn't care. Opening his eyes once more, he focused them on one person in the room, and only one.

  


"So, are you going to punch me now or what?"

  


He could see Jazz's face contort with confusion out of the corner of his eye. Even Sam looked back at him with the same type of confusion.

  


Tucker on the other hand, just gazed at him evenly. A darker expression hidden behind his wire frame glasses as the tension seemed to double, weighing heavily now on all the occupants shoulders.

  


It was a moment before the African American spoke, "I won't kick a man when he's down."

  


"Who said anything about kicking?" Danny asked, using the last bit of reserved strength he had to try and stare Tucker down.

  


The thought somewhat scared him. He was challenging Tucker. Tucker Foley, his best friend from younger years…

  


_'Your name may be 'Danny' again, but to him you're still Alex.'_

  


And Tucker didn't like Alex.

  


Actually, the last time he talked to him, Tucker didn't seem to think so highly of Danny either unless he truly was dead.

  


He was screwed over either way.

  


Tucker glared at him one last time. "Don't make me repeat myself." And with that, he turned his back on the room and headed back out into the hallway. The sound of dying footsteps slowly faded away into the distance before vanishing completely.

  


There was a pause before Jazz sighed softly. "I'm going to go talk to him…" She focused her attention back on Danny. "Just stay here and rest, I'll be back up once in a while to check in so I can bring you something then."

  


Danny nodded as Jazz smiled back down at him, caressing the side of his face once more with her hand in her sisterly way, before excusing herself from the room and hurrying off in the direction Tucker had vanished in.

  


That left him and the last occupant alone in the room. Sam hadn't moved an inch from her spot, and surprisingly hadn't followed Jazz out of the room.

  


So they both remained there, unmoving, not speaking, just looking into each others eyes like they had before. Calculating, contemplating, wondering who was going to make the first move.

  


_"It's chess, Daniel."_ He remembered Vlad saying to him once, before he had passed out due to the stress on his body after taking down the Ghost King in his fathers Ecto-suit. But the older man did have a solid point; situations in life truly were a game of chess.

  


Surprisingly enough, it was Sam who broke the thickening silence. "So that's why you didn't come home. Your own fear of how we would react."

  


Danny paused a moment before responding softly. "There were more reasons than just that, but I suppose it's one of the main raison d'être. It was a legitimate fear though, don't you think?" He gestured towards the door that Tucker had just stormed out of with his left hand, despite the fact that it still felt like led.

  


"Coward…" She tried to spit out, but it was obvious she lost the confidence to stop it from simply trailing off weakly.

  


Hearing her say that, he found it remotely funny and proceeded to laugh bitterly. "When I tried to call myself that you wouldn't let me. You yelled at me for it, actually."

  


That seemed to snap a nerve in Sam, as a simmering rage returned to her eyes. "That's because _you_ weren't calling _yourself_ that, you were calling _Danny _that. And the Danny I know isn't a coward!"

  


Her sentence shut him up temporarily, and though his mind was urging him to take the defensive he knew that it wouldn't have done either of them any good. So instead he sighed softly, taking another sharp breath before speaking.

  


"I didn't have a choice…"

  


"Yes, yes you did!" Sam yelled, the rage obviously still boiling in her. "Neither Tucker or myself blamed you for what happened that night! Imagine how I felt when I finally recovered and learned that you had vanished! It broke my heart, I cried for hours!

  


"I read that note you wrote over and over again, crying my eyes out, wondering why you had just suddenly left us all and wondering what I had done wrong!" Sam's eyes were filled with tears even as she spoke, the older ones streaming down her face, smudging up her makeup once again. And with a sudden sense of horror, he realized that the tear stains he had seen on the note in his room had been her own…

  


"Tucker fell into shock, Jazz went into denial and I thought part of me had died!" She had almost completely broken into hysterics at this point, her body shaking violently as she gripped the side of the door as though her life depended on it. "None of this would have happened if you hadn't left! So why, tell me why! Why did you leave!"

  


"Because I had already seen you come close to death once because of me, and I wasn't about to let that happen again!" Danny yelled that last sentence out, a pocket of his own rage suddenly exploding possibly above Sam's for only a moment before it died back down once more. He had forced himself to sit up despite the screaming pain in his lower chest, but held that position anyway, using the headboard to support him.

  


Silence once again filled the room, as Sam gazed back at him with tear stained eyes.

  


Minutes past before she finally spoke quietly. "No one ever blamed you."

  


"I know." He said, matching her quite tone.

  


"But I still hate you for leaving."

  


Danny simply nodded. "I know."

  


Suddenly, without further warning, Sam threw herself at him as though she couldn't take it anymore. Pressed up against his chest, she wrapped her arms tightly around him as if he was nothing more than a figment of her imagination she was afraid would suddenly vanish. Her arms constricted around his chest, and he forced himself to ignore the white hot charge of pain that rocketed through him as she crushed his already broken ribs.

  


Instead of trying to loosen her grip, he lifted his own arms around her and pulled her even tighter; reassuring her non-verbally that everything was all right, as she proceeded to sob on his shoulder. "Please, please don't leave!"

  


"I won't," he said softly. "I'm not going anywhere, I promise."

  


Her body shook against him as sobs violently shook her body as she clung to his chest with all the desperation of a small child. "I hate you… I hate you so much!"

  


Danny gripped his fingers into her back tightly, trying to give her the comfort she so desperately needed as he spoke, "I know Sam, I know…"

  


"I... Hate you…" She managed to choke out softly one last time before burying her face into the bare skin on the side of his neck, her hot tears running down his torso.

  


"I know," he said once more, hiding his face in her thick black hair as he held her close. "And I'm sorry…"

  


_'I'm so sorry...' _

  


_-End of Chapter Nine-_

  


_-To Be Continued…-_

  
  



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